Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: You asked about a communication strategy. You'll know that there has been a very active communication strategy already, particularly with those who are waiting the longest. Your committee has written a very interesting report, and you'll know from that that the Living Well programme gives advice to people in terms of how they can live well while they're waiting for their operations. Obviously...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you, Russell, for your contribution. I'm pleased that you agree that it was important to have targets. You're absolutely right that our targets are clear that nobody should wait more than a year by 2025, but there is an interim target, and that is that we should eliminate the number waiting for longer than two years in most specialities by March 2023. So, that's a way you can hold us to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We will transform the way that we provide planned care. There will be more care and support available from a wider range of local services and professionals to help people to stay well and to stay at home. We will set up dedicated surgical facilities and will separate planned care from urgent and emergency care, where we can. We will provide better information and support to people,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Dirprwy Lywydd, thank you for the opportunity to outline how we plan to transform and modernise the way the NHS provides planned care here in Wales. I am today publishing a plan that will help to reduce the long waiting times that have unfortunately built up during the pandemic. It will ensure that people get the right treatment the first time and make sure that they are cared for as close to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I would be happy to do that, but let me look at the advice that I receive. But I'm more than happy to look into whether this is something we would want to see, and whether the expertise is available for this kind of development. So, I'm happy to do that, and I hope that I can meet with you and Peter Fox too. It is worth saying in conclusion that small adaptations are available, but there are...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: In the budget in March, we added £2 million to the adaptation budget, with additional funds for care and repair for local authorities, so that people can adapt their own homes as their condition worsens. Most adaptations are small and are completed in a matter of days. Over the past two years, the Minister for Climate Change has added £2 million to the funding for local authorities.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. Firstly, I'd like to thank Adam Price for bringing this important issue to the Chamber and also to thank Peter Fox who I know has championed this cause since he entered the Senedd. When we debated this last December, there was equally as much compassion as I've heard for people with MND and their families and loved ones as I've heard today. Some of us, as you've pointed...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I am pleased that I can accept today's motion, and I agree with that ambition, over the long term, to improve the situation in our pharmacies across Wales.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We recognise how important it is to ensure that learning time for the pharmacy workforce is protected. By working with Health Education and Improvement Wales, we've funded a pilot for protected learning time for community pharmacists this year. The work of evaluating these schemes will be completed during the coming months, and the result of that work will influence the arrangements for the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: So, that's precisely what we're doing. This week, we've got a new framework, we have a new contract, and they'll have to sign up to providing those services, and there's a whole list of services that they sign up for, but this is a new contract that's starting this week. So, this is a new start where we're all clear about what they need to deliver, and they'll get paid for it. We're putting a...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Of course.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: It is absolutely the best way to improve your conditions. I was very pleased to meet with the pharmacy union very recently to discuss some of these very issues. I want to be clear that pharmacy owners who choose to divest—and I know of many, one in my own community—will not benefit from our reforms. But we will continue to reward those pharmacy owners who work with us to deliver better...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. Firstly, can I thank the Conservatives for raising today's motion? Isn't it refreshing to be able to agree on something for a change? I certainly welcome the debate, which provides an opportunity, and has provided an opportunity, for all Senedd Members to put on record our recognition of the contribution of pharmacy teams throughout the pandemic. It also provides an...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. Well, there is stress across the whole system. The Grange is experiencing it in particular, but this is a stress that is happening across the whole of Wales, indeed across the whole of the United Kingdom. And I'm informed by my officials that sites, for example, in England, also declared major incidents last night, including Hereford hospital and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, I would urge you—and you're quite right, there was some extreme criticism about what happened in the Grange by places like the Royal College of Physicians—to read the follow-up review, which does suggest that there have been many improvements since that initial inspection took place. I would also ask people to make use of the now all-Wales 111 telephone services,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Absolutely. And, no, I don't have the specific information, but, obviously, I'd be willing to look at that. There are always issues about pressures in hospital, and if people are off sick, obviously—and there are a lot of people off sick; we all know somebody who is suffering with COVID at the moment—clearly that is affecting hospital staff as well, which is why you then have to go to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Alun. I think you're absolutely right, it's important that we don't just act on hearsay, but there are lots of individual patient experiences that are frankly heartbreaking. I've received e-mails over the weekend with people just desperate, frankly, because they have been waiting for hours on end. We are in an extreme situation at the moment. I'm confident that we won't...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. Of course there were lessons to be learnt from the opening of the Grange. We opened it because, frankly, we were in the middle of a pandemic and we needed all the help that we could get. So, it was absolutely the right thing to do, but obviously it meant that we didn't have time to do the preparations that we would have done had we not been in that situation. I'm very pleased...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. There is a difficult—an extremely difficult—situation that's confronting not just Aneurin Bevan health board but also health boards across the whole of Wales at the moment. We've always been open about the challenges that NHS Wales and emergency departments are under, and they're under pressure like they haven't seen during the whole of the pandemic. COVID rates have...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: In the light of exceptional pressures and despite efforts to stabilise its services, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board declared a business continuity incident at the Grange University Hospital on the afternoon of 29 March. This is the highest level of escalation available, and clearly indicates the severe pressure being experienced by our health and care services.
