Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Yes, absolutely, and that's already happening. So, that's why we've been having these summits, which have been more or less organised by the NHS executive, which is in shadow form at the moment. But I was really interested in your point that you want us to focus all our spending powers on the issues that matter, and that's resolving the pay dispute. A lot of your colleagues have talked...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I wasn't exactly sure what Plaid Cymru hoped to achieve by getting the Welsh Government to declare a health crisis in Wales, so, I am pleased that I now know the three main points of what you wanted us to focus on, and I am grateful for those. So, one of them was to help focus minds on finding innovative ways to address the problems we face, focus all our spending...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Carolyn. Certainly, we're very aware that it's not just about pay; there are lots of other issues around this, which is why I was really pleased to have been presented with the staff welfare project on Monday, by representatives of the trade union movement, just setting out the kinds of things where they'd really like to see us make some movement. And so, obviously, I'll be...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. First of all, on the issue of agency workers, I think it's really important we put this into a context. So, 65 per cent of what we spend in the NHS is spent directly on staffing, and, of that, about 6 per cent is spent on agency workers. That's too much, and we need to bring it down. But what was clear to me—. I spent a bit of time in Withybush hospital on the weekend....
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Russell, and thanks for your understanding that this is a very tough negotiation and a very difficult time for all of those working in the NHS. You asked about the confidence in the pay review body process. I think there are things that can change. I'm obviously very keen to hear what the NHS unions think in terms of what could be improved, but one thing that is very clear...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'd like to take this opportunity to update Members following my meeting on 12 January with the NHS trade unions. I wrote to the unions on 6 January in advance of the meeting, inviting them to discuss a package of measures aiming to find a way to offer some additional reward to the workforce so they felt able to call off their industrial action. I suggested that the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I think that some of the points that have been made on the floor of the Chamber today are important and should be taken into account, particularly, I think, the fact that when it's difficult for a helicopter to reach a certain place, you would have to use a vehicle, and that is far more difficult in rural areas. I'm sure that will be taken into account during the inquiry and the review. I...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Everyone involved in the work of commissioning and providing these crucial services is eager to ensure that the funding available to them is spent in the best possible way. They would like to reduce the number of patients who can't access the service. In addition to that, the Wales Air Ambulance Charity wants to make the best use of the donations made by the public and is currently developing...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch, Llywydd, and very many thanks for allowing me to reply to this opposition debate. I'd like to begin by placing on record that I recognise the invaluable partnership between the Wales Air Ambulance Charity and Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service Cymru, known as EMRTS, in saving lives and in optimising outcomes in Wales. The air ambulance service in Wales is making a huge...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Formally.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. I think it's really important that we recognise that the staffing challenge when it comes to healthcare is a global challenge, so people all over the world are looking for the same people, especially people like anaesthetists. So, we are in a very difficult and competitive environment. When it comes to investment in north Wales, I think it's really important that you...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: If the responsibility is entirely on our shoulders, and we are expected to care for everything without people taking responsibility for their own actions, then we're not going to cope. If you look at the situation—[Interruption.] If you look at the situation in terms of an ageing population, it won't be possible in future for us to provide the services that are required. So, we need to ask...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Natasha, because I am absolutely wedded to the idea that, if we are going to transform the way we do, in particular, care, then we're going to have to rely more on technology, and I'm very much looking forward to going to see how the Delta system works in Hywel Dda next week. So, already some of this technology is being used in our communities, and certainly, when it comes...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. Thanks for that, because I think it's really important that people understand that, although there are some examples of not great things happening in the NHS at the moment, there are also hundreds of thousands of great things happening in our NHS, and 376,000 consultations a month is a pretty good figure; 400,000 contacts in general medical services in a week. These are...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. Just to make it clear, what we're trying to do when it comes to GPs is to ensure that we understand that there are many people who can help, not only GPs. So, increasing the numbers of physiotherapists, of pharmacists in our communities, more advanced nurse practitioners—. I know that there are some excellent examples on the Llŷn Peninsula, for example, of advanced...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, as I say, I think we've learned lots of lessons in the past, which is why we did all that preparation work much, much earlier. And I think the situation would have been a lot worse had we not had those urgent primary care centres, had we not had the 111 service, had we not had SDEC, had we not had pharmacies helping people out, had we not had those 500 extra beds in...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, I'm very sorry, of course, to hear about that individual case. There are examples where people are getting the support in some of our same-day emergency care centres, where they go in, they get an appointment, they know when they're going in, they get the cast done on the same day. I'm sorry that that hasn't happened in this case, but I can assure you that it is...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, I'm glad that you recognise that there are lots of people who are ready for discharge. It's very interesting that your leader earlier was saying, 'Actually, just be very careful about when you do ask people to leave who are medically fit for discharge.' So, it's about risk, isn't it? It's about where the risk is, and what's important for us is that we do get people out...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, this is an area where my colleague, Lynne Neagle, takes a leading role in terms of public health. We have, of course, got a very clear programme of activity—'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales'—where we try and encourage people to make sure that they participate, and they understand what healthy food is and how they use it and how they cook it. We've put a lot of...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. I'm happy to give you a list of where we found that capacity. The capacity of course is reliant on our ability to collaborate with local authorities in the area, and that's where we've been working with them closely, as well as with the NHS in those areas, too. When it comes to step-down facilities, I do think that generally speaking, people prefer to get the care that...
