Angela Burns: Will the First Minister outline the Welsh Government's plans for improving nursing training over the term of the fifth Assembly?
Angela Burns: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to thank everyone who took part in this debate. I am sorry, I am not going to go through all your individual contributions because I don’t have a huge amount of time, but there are just a couple of points that I really wanted to make. This is, if you like, a game of two halves, so let’s look at the children first. I am very glad...
Angela Burns: Thank you.
Angela Burns: I’m even more delighted to hear you say that. I just want to run past you one particular family, whose 12-month-old twin girls were 28 weeks premature. They’ve both suffered from bronchiolitis on four occasions this season alone, resulting in nine hospital admission days and six separate visits to A&E. These babies have been denied the vaccine as they do not fall within the strict...
Angela Burns: I’m very pleased to hear you say that Cabinet Secretary because, in fact, in England, the NHS uses a centralised route of funding to pay for these injections, which ensures that at least the minimum guidelines are met. I’m sure you’re aware, but evidence is demonstrating that by considering small cohorts of at-risk babies, there’s a clear economic case for using Synagis due to the...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have highlighted that bronchiolitis in babies is a major winter pressure on the Welsh NHS. I’m sure you’re aware that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommends palivizumab and Synagis as vaccinations that should be offered to high-risk groups to help protect against the...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I wish to move the motion before us today, tabled by the Welsh Conservative group, and, by doing so, highlight the innovations that cross-border healthcare can offer in improving the outcomes for patients on both sides of the border. We would also wish the Assembly to note the very sound recommendations made by the Silk commission, which are reflected also...
Angela Burns: When you visit the school tomorrow, I’m sure that you’ll be very impressed with the new additional learning needs dedicated classrooms, which are an enormous step forward for the provision of services and support to children with additional learning needs in south Pembrokeshire. However, the school next door, the Welsh medium school, doesn’t have quite such up-to-date facilities, and I...
Angela Burns: Would you take an intervention? Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Of course, the other thing is that a lot of the people we’ve talked about today who struggle to access a number of these services do go to the chemist. They go to the chemist on a regular basis to get the medicines that they’ve been prescribed because of their lifestyles, and that gives us a really great chance for the...
Angela Burns: First of all, I’d like to very much welcome this report from the chief medical officer, and I’d like to thank Dr Frank Atherton and Professor Chris Jones for the work that they’ve put into it. I think this report very much demonstrates that a one-size-all-fits approach does not work for the Welsh health service. As Rhun ap Iorwerth has talked about the social gradient, I’d just like...
Angela Burns: Minister, as far as I can see, Yr Egin will support the Welsh Labour goal and the Welsh Government’s goal of new technical hubs in rural areas, and so I’m 100 per cent behind this. The question I would like to ask you—. I’m very well aware that the funding has been in place. I’m very well aware, as I know you are, that S4C carried out due diligence, looked at a number of different...
Angela Burns: Will the First Minister outline what support the Welsh Government is providing to the Wales Air Ambulance Service?
Angela Burns: Would you take another intervention? Thank you, and I’m very, very grateful for that very positive response. There is one area, though, that I think is completely within your power today to make a difference, and that’s on the subject of when a dyslexic child is told, ‘You are on such a place on the scale’ and, therefore, ‘When you go to do your GCSEs, you’re going to get 25 per...
Angela Burns: Would you take an intervention? I’d be absolutely delighted to do that. In fact, Minister, I know my office are trying to get hold of you today because I’ve just finished a complete analysis on autism in terms of the most common problems that children with autistic spectrum disorder face, because I was trying to lobby you. I would like to take this opportunity publicly to say, if you...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to give a minute of my time to Andrew R.T. Davies. ‘Life through a different lens’ pretty much sums up the experiences of people with dyslexia. Their way of seeing the world is changed, because they have dyslexia, which is defined as ‘a complex set of cognitive problems, which affects people in different ways and to different degrees.’ I...
Angela Burns: Although dyslexia does not mean that pupils are illiterate, a number, especially those that the system has missed out or forgotten, may well be. We will all have heard of adults saying they did not get diagnosed until much later in life and talking of the impact it has had on them. A study by KPMG finds that by the age of 37, each illiterate person has cost the taxpayer an additional £45,000...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to do just that. I’m very grateful to Plaid Cymru for bringing forward this motion, although I would say to Rhun ap Iorwerth that he shouldn’t be quite so sensitive about being ribbed for relying so heavily upon an English survey, when he normally eschews all things English. In fact, Plaid Cymru have taken me to task so many times for...
Angela Burns: I’m grateful for the motion before us today, because it reminds us all of the immense contribution made to our NHS by many workers from overseas. I’d like to take this opportunity to send them a clear message of thanks and gratitude for all that they have done for our country and continue to do so. There are already some huge shortages in certain staff areas. Between 2013 and 2015, there...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Presiding Officer. There was a day in February 2015 when my husband was told to expect the worst, and my devastated family put their lives on hold. I had sepsis and the battle to beat the bug wasn’t going well. Who knew—not I—that a cough could open the door to a ruthless and determined enemy intent on destruction? Today we launched the cross-party group on sepsis to a packed...
Angela Burns: Thank you for that, Minister. You referred to Wales as being a play-friendly country, and I’m sure you appreciate the vital role that exercise plays in having a healthy upbringing and making us healthier adults. However, these spaces are under immense pressure. They’re being sold off or they’re just disused or just plain nasty. People don’t want to go there, because they don’t feel...
