Helen Mary Jones: I agree that that is a serious risk. This brings me on to the point that I wanted to make to the Minister about our recommendation 2, which was about targeted awareness and about training for professionals. Now, we weren't asking, Minister, for a traditional awareness campaign. We know it wouldn't reach the right people, and perhaps we can keep under review whether the approach that the...
Helen Mary Jones: I will very happily take an intervention.
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you very much indeed, because I take your point absolutely about the specialist posts, and I do hope that the Minister hears that, because of course one of the things we heard in our evidence very strongly was that GPs themselves—and this was from GPs and the Royal College of General Practitioners—were saying that they were missing the signs of hepatitis C. Patients were saying...
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'm grateful to everybody who's participated in the debate. Angela Burns is right of course to highlight the new challenges, people who may not feel that they fall into the traditional groups of people who may be vulnerable to the virus. I also very much want to associate myself with what she said about the principle of 'accept in principle'. I think...
Helen Mary Jones: Key things emerged in our inquiry. We know, of course, that Wales is signed up to the World Health Organization's global health sector strategy, which aims to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030. One of the tragedies, of course, of the large number of people living with this condition is that it is now completely curable. Whilst this is welcome—the signing up is welcome—a number of witnesses to...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Thank you very much indeed, Deputy Presiding Officer. I stand here, of course, in place of our much-beloved colleague, Dr Dai Lloyd, who is currently not very well. I certainly can't hope to imitate his inimitable style. I'm sure that all Members in this Chamber will join me in wishing Dai a swift and speedy recovery, and all I can do is attempt to fill his...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm grateful to the First Minister for his answer. I'd like to draw his attention to the situation faced by pupils and staff at Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant in Llanelli, which as the First Minister will know is Wales's oldest Welsh-medium school, where publicly funded Welsh-medium education began. He may also recall that the situation faced by pupils and staff in the school is serious. Whole...
Helen Mary Jones: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government support for Welsh-medium education in Mid and West Wales? OAQ54623
Helen Mary Jones: Will the Minister take an intervention? I'm really pleased to hear you say that you'll be making those representations. Of course, one of the protected characteristics where violence against the persons holding that protected characteristic is not treated as a hate crime is violence against women. Do you believe that there may be a case? I wouldn't ask you to postpone—I'd ask you to...
Helen Mary Jones: I bet you do.
Helen Mary Jones: Well, it's what your independent adviser said.
Helen Mary Jones: —we have people being appointed, who clearly cannot do their job, and then have to have a very, very expensive intervention to enable them to do it. Is it not time for the Minister to acknowledge that the local health board system isn't working? The whole point of it was to have independent scrutiny to be able to scrutinise the professionals. It's clearly not working. Isn't it time for a...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm grateful to the Minister for his response and I'm glad that he mentions the health board himself. I don't know if the Minister has had an opportunity to review the proceedings of last week's health committee, but I can't be the only person who was shocked by some of what David Jenkins, the independent adviser, had to say about the state of the local health board. He was very clear that...
Helen Mary Jones: I accept what the Minister says, of course, about not wanting to create artificial timelines, but I certainly know that if I was a woman of child-bearing age living in that region, I would want to know that there was a timeline and that at some point I could expect that service to be safe. I've received representations, and I know that other colleagues have, suggesting to me—well, proving...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'd like to take the Minister back again to the situation in Cwm Taf. I am aware, of course, that a further statement was made to this Assembly a fortnight ago—I think it was a fortnight ago. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be present then, but I have had the opportunity to read the Record. And I do accept, as the Minister said in his response to the remarks of my...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm very grateful, and we are all on these benches very grateful, to the Conservative group for choosing this very important topic for their debate. I'd associate myself with much of what Mark Isherwood has said, and I won't trouble the Chamber or take the time to repeat it, but I think it is crucial that we do understand that, whatever changes and services are...
Helen Mary Jones: Will you take an intervention?
Helen Mary Jones: Minister, I've been contacted by the Powys agricultural well-being network, and I believe they've written to all the Members here who represent Powys. They're very concerned about the emotional and mental well-being of people working in the agricultural sector, at a time of great uncertainty, with real concerns about future markets. Can I ask you today to discuss with the Minister for Health...
Helen Mary Jones: I'd like to ask the Trefnydd first of all for a longer term plan to ask if the health Minister will bring forward in the autumn an oral statement to this Chamber about the progress of the independent oversight process in Cwm Taf maternity services. I'm very grateful, I'm sure, to him, and I'm sure all Members would agree with me, for a comprehensive written update that we've received today,...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch. I'm very grateful to the First Minister for his answer. There was a joint meeting last week of the cross-party group on violence against women and girls and the cross-party group on violence against children, looking at the family courts and the work that CAFCASS are doing. It was very encouraging to hear how CAFCASS Cymru are beginning to take a much more child's rights-based...
