Angela Burns: Minister, I'm sure you're aware of the eye disease keratoconus, which can lead to patients completely losing their sight. Can you please explain why the recognised treatment for this disease is not available on the Welsh NHS?
Angela Burns: Minister, for £2,000 you can nip down to the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend—which, the last time I looked, was an NHS hospital—and you can pay an NHS surgeon, in his spare time, for £2,000, to actually give you the treatment that saves the sight in your eye. I fail to see that that's to do with capacity; I think it's to do with will. Will you undertake to look at this process?...
Angela Burns: Minister, the mutual investment model that finances most of the twenty-first century schools programme in Carmarthenshire and throughout the rest of Wales is a really welcome evolution from the old-fashioned PFI, but, of course, with all of these issues, there's always a balance to be had between loss of control and being able to be fiscally exposed. Now, the mutual investment model does have...
Angela Burns: Minister, thank you very much for bringing forward your statement on this report. I think this report is very good. I was really pleased to see that it's clear, it's concise, it's got a very well defined set of objectives, and it actually talks about how we can monitor it and measure the outcomes. It is a rare jewel, and I'm delighted to be able to ask you a few questions on this. It talks...
Angela Burns: My colleague for Mid and West Wales has made some very good points, but leaving it for a debate tomorrow, for thought over the next few months, the next few years, I don't think gets to the nub of the current crisis we have. First Minister, you know as well as I do we have a number of health boards that are in a dire state. We've got a lack of fresh blood, we have the same team going around,...
Angela Burns: Many of the older people who come to me have been very grateful for the grants that they've had to adapt their homes or to renovate them, because as you and I and most of the Members here know, stability in your home is incredibly important as you get older because you are able then to stay connected to your community, things are more familiar, and it helps with mental health issues,...
Angela Burns: Minister, I'd like to thank you for your statement this morning—or this afternoon—and for bringing forward the further detail on this Bill that you laid yesterday. I think I need to start by asking you whether or not you can explain to us why you believe we need this legislation. Because, of course, we would all want to support greater quality in our public services, especially with the...
Angela Burns: Of course, the Welsh Government is a major procurer throughout the whole of Wales, and indeed the organisations that are responsible to the Welsh Government, and so you have a huge amount of influence. You mentioned earlier supply chain interventions; are you able to, or do you, indeed, issue guidance that gives a weighting to organisations so that they can actually give more marks towards,...
Angela Burns: Would you take an intervention?
Angela Burns: It's most kind of you to take an intervention. I think the point I just want to make is that we refer a lot to sport, and I'm aware of the Sport Wales programmes, but of course, for young women—12, 13, or 14 years old, hormones racing around their bodies, very body conscious, very aware of trying to figure out what they're all about and everything—actually, the notion of somebody coming...
Angela Burns: Of course, our Chair in his own inimitable style has breezed through the entire report, touched on every recommendation, but nonetheless, Minister, I do think that it is really important that I rehearse again some of the points that he's made because we do have the highest rates of obesity, and unhealthy children usually grow up to be pretty unhealthy adults. It's a deeply concerning...
Angela Burns: I'm very sorry to hear about your constituent, Leanne. We talked here, or Leanne spoke about how Mr Rogers's death may have been able to be prevented if the right resources had been in place and, of course, prevention is better than cure. It's an old saying but it is absolutely true, and we know that in the Rhondda and in the Cwm Taf health board, the highest number of young people and...
Angela Burns: What is not clear to many outside of this Chamber is what happens when a health board is placed under special measures. In Wales, the Welsh Government, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and the Welsh Audit Office work together to identify and respond to serious issues that affect services, quality, safety of care and organisational effectiveness. Actions can, but not always, involve placing key...
Angela Burns: Residents of north Wales, under the care of Betsi Cadwaladr, are spread across a huge area of the country, making up 23 per cent of the entire population of Wales. Despite this scale, patients suffer the worst A&E waiting times in the country, the highest number of reported patient safety incidents and an almost crippling shortage of GPs, midwives and community nurses. Now, the Welsh...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to open this debate today marking an anniversary that none of us wanted to see. Minister, you and your predecessor, now First Minister, have presided over four years of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in special measures. Not only has this board spend the last four years under the management of your Government, but, as we heard in...
Angela Burns: Minister, I'd like to thank you for your statement today on the amber review, which I think is showing positive improvements. We have looked at this before, over the last months. I do have some questions and, of course, we're never going to be able to discuss the amber review without touching upon what happens to people who suffer from a stroke. Now, you've mentioned already that you are...
Angela Burns: I'm shocked, actually, by this statement. When you read it, if this was a health board that was going into special measures now, or had been in special measures for six or eight months, I could accept a lot of what you were saying, that it's still a work in progress, but we are talking about four long years. I had a nice little list of things I was going to ask you about what we should be...
Angela Burns: I'd like to thank Andrew for bringing forward this debate. Our friendship with dogs has run across millennia and this is no way to treat them. In my constituency of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, I am sad to say that puppy breeding is at an all-time high, and I have made it my business to get down close and personal with some of the people who do this. And I've been to puppy farms...
Angela Burns: Thank you for that answer. For those who may not be aware, Interserve were awarded a £25 million contract by Cwm Taf university health board to deliver part of a redevelopment there. Now, I have four questions I'd just like to quickly ask you about this issue, Cabinet Secretary. We know that, in Westminster, your party has called for a—admittedly unlawful—temporary ban on Interserve...
Angela Burns: Paul Davies.
