Vaughan Gething: Health boards in Wales need to ensure they have robust governance in place and act in a manner that upholds the values set for the Welsh public service.
Vaughan Gething: I'm seeing the chair of the health board in question on Monday to have this discussion.
Vaughan Gething: Well, it is more than just the money that we've announced. Part of this is outside the control of the health board; we've discussed recently the tax and pension challenges, the fact that that has taken out capacity within each of our health boards, but that isn't the whole story and I won't try and say that it is. So, I've had correspondence recently from the interim chair of the health board...
Vaughan Gething: I expect patients to be seen and treated in a timely manner and within our targets. We have made available £50 million to health boards to build on the recent progress and improve waiting times further by March 2020. Swansea Bay University Health Board has received its share of this national funding.
Vaughan Gething: The first point is just a point about language, because ear syringing is a particular method of removing wax that is no longer National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved, and so we try not to refer to ear syringing—I know it's not just about changing language, it is a particular method itself—but to ear wax management, to try to make sure that, where people can, they can...
Vaughan Gething: We're making significant efforts to think about how we recruit and train people, and how we open up careers in healthcare at a much earlier age. For example, we've done some work with Welsh-medium schools about encouraging some of their students to consider a career in the health service, not just to be a doctor but the wider range of care services available. When we think about what we're...
Vaughan Gething: We've had a real challenge in making sure that, as we've normalised the way in which we use information in our everyday lives, the health service catches up with that, in the way that we move some of the industrial-scale records that we create, with all of the different patient episodes that the health service provides—over 18 million patient interactions for a country of just over 3...
Vaughan Gething: Our plan for health and social care, 'A Healthier Wales', aims to strengthen the voice of the citizen and ensure that we listen to and engage with the people of Wales. Information is provided to patients in a variety of ways to try to meet the varying needs and preferences of people across the country.
Vaughan Gething: Well, there is a range of measures that are already in place and being introduced as part of the winter plans. Of the money that I previously announced, some of it went directly to health boards and some went to nationally directed services, and, indeed, £17 million was determined between regional partnership boards. Lots of it is about looking at the whole system. It's partly about taking...
Vaughan Gething: Well, the Be Wise Save Lives campaign sadly is run every year, or a version of it, because we regularly understand that there are people who don't make the best use of our emergency services and, in particular, in this case, the Welsh ambulance service. It's partly about equipping the public with information so that they can choose for themselves—the Choose Well campaign that we run each...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I've never tried to stand up and say, 'Everything is fine, look the other way.' That is just not the approach that I've taken at all. And I just don't think that an exercise in post-event justification is particularly helpful or useful in terms of taking forward our national health service. The range of the issues that the Member raises—. She's entitled to have views that say she...
Vaughan Gething: Well, there's a range of questions in there, and, of course, I said before, you can't know what you don't know when you're making choices. I took measures to intervene in the health board once the report had been received and I then promptly published it. So, the intervention shows that we did act when the level of concern was there to do so. And indeed, putting in place an interim chief...
Vaughan Gething: When you sign off a three-year plan you have to understand the nature of the narrative, what's being proposed and whether there's the ability to deliver on the change that is being described within that plan. And having a strategic direction is actually really important for organisations, regardless of their escalation status. And it's part of the challenge in north Wales that they've been...
Vaughan Gething: I think that's an appalling way to finish a question—as if it does not matter. Everything that I do in this job and the choices I make are about people in Wales who work in our service, people in Wales who need the health service. Far from there being a tsunami of unanswered concerns—. And, again, the overstated nature, in terms of the language you're using, I think really doesn't do you...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I think it's important to recognise that, in the reports that the Member has quoted elements from, there are also a wider range of positive reports about the activity of the health board. Trying to recast in a wholly negative light the activity of the former Cwm Taf health board is not something that I think is either fair or balanced. The honest truth has been set out, in both the...
Vaughan Gething: 'Yes' is the straight answer, because it's important that there is a plan and the plan itself makes sense. And having had the interim step from the joint royal colleges' report, of course I considered the matter fully, and whether it would be better or not to not approve that plan. I believe it's the right thing for the organisation, and I believe their capacity to deliver and continue to...
Vaughan Gething: Actually, we are looking at a range of training areas right across the country, including north Wales, for future service provision, and I'll have more to do with the faculty based in Bangor in the near future, to formally open that. But in terms of the specific challenges around Wales, we are actually seeing lots more people each year, compared to a decade ago, certainly across the country....
Vaughan Gething: As you know, I can't comment on an individual matter, which I'm certain I'm not aware of, but if you do write to me with the details, which I'm sure you will do, I'll happily investigate the matter in order to understand what has happened for your individual constituent. In terms of the broader challenge about improving performance within the national health service, as you're aware, we've...
Vaughan Gething: Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has commenced a review of urgent and emergency dental provision, with the aim of providing a sustainable and improved service. As part of the process and in considering any change, staff and trade unions are being involved and will be formally consulted.
Vaughan Gething: I'm happy to confirm that, on the Pencoed issue, I remember not just the conversation with the Member but with local councillors and residents about the threat to the Llanharan centre being closed, and I'm pleased it's got a long-term future. And of course in thinking about the future, we need to think about where the need is and where the demand is, as well as the broader challenge that was...
