Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank Members for their varied contributions. I want to make clear at the outset that we won't support the Conservative or Brexit Party amendments. As I noted during the debate on this issue on 18 September, staffing rotas are an operational matter, as they should be, and the responsibility of individual organisations—in this case, obviously, Betsi...
Vaughan Gething: Formally.
Vaughan Gething: As I've said many times in this Chamber, we will need to change the way that we deliver primary care. Single and double-handed practices, their ability to deliver the sort of range of services that we need, that's part of the reason we introduced clusters to help GP practices to work together with the wider primary care team to deliver a more sustainable way of delivering care. Primary care...
Vaughan Gething: I can.
Vaughan Gething: And that's a good example of the sort of progress we need to make to deliver real access to primary care. And I remember meeting the Member together with his local constituent to discuss the issues. I do get to go out and about and to hear directly from staff and residents. For example, I recently returned to Bryntirion with Hefin David to meet the team in a managed practice to hear about...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank Members who've contributed to this debate. Of course, access to primary care services is a key part of the Government strategy 'Prosperity for All'. Medical services are a vital part of primary care for people across Wales and valued by us all. It's a real positive that, in the latest national survey, 93 per cent of people were positive...
Vaughan Gething: Formally.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to members of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for their report on progress towards achieving hepatitis C elimination in Wales. Since the introduction of new treatments in 2014 NHS Wales has treated 2,850 patients for hepatitis C, with a success rate of around 95 per cent. Access to these new and highly effective treatments has...
Vaughan Gething: As I said before to Angela Burns, I don't think a comprehensive review of Cwm Taf is needed, nor indeed into waiting list management. We are, though, always looking for how to make better use of technology to help manage appointments and waiting lists within the service. Part of what I'm keen to do is to make sure that best practice across health boards is adopted and rather more uniform...
Vaughan Gething: I don't accept the premise of the Member's question that the data is consistently unreliable. We're open and we're honest about the accuracy that we have in our official statistics. Those official statistics do, of course, help to inform the choices that we make and the scrutiny we have on our services. I think a blanket attack that says, 'You can't rely on data provided by the NHS' is...
Vaughan Gething: I'll deal with your final two points first, because in terms of whether other data issues exist, there is regular scrutiny of reported statistics by our official statistics department within the Government, and they are absolutely scrupulous in the work that they do. And where there are any caveats to data that is received, they're published as part of the statistics report. I'm sure that you...
Vaughan Gething: These patients were always reported on an internal list within the health board, and their waiting times were monitored. They are now being reported on the correct referral-to-treatment or diagnostic list. Robust mechanisms are now in place to ensure the health board reports all patients correctly.
Vaughan Gething: On your final point, that simply isn't true. It's simply not true. Vertex understand very well the well-established appraisal mechanisms we have right across the United Kingdom for new medicines: the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence appraisal system that we sign up to, the particular appraisal systems also available in Scotland, and here in Wales through the All Wales...
Vaughan Gething: The Member will be aware of the letter published by Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England on this matter, sent to the House of Commons's Health and Social Care Select Committee. That set out that Northern Ireland and Wales have stood alongside England in the negotiation of the agreement that has been reached. My expectation is that those terms will be honoured. I made public...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. The use of Orkambi a Symkevi in NHS England is approved only through a commercial access agreement. My officials have met with, and await a formal offer from, Vertex. Given the confidential nature of our discussions, there is, of course, a limit to the comment that I can make.
Vaughan Gething: I think there are a couple of different points. I'm not at all aware whether the interim recovery director is responsible for the ongoing consultation with trade unions around nursing rosters. I don't think that's a fair point to make in this debate. There is an entirely legitimate question, though, about the transparency on information about the terms on which consultants are engaged and the...
Vaughan Gething: The health board uses external consultants to provide additional expertise in specific areas. This has recently included specialist turnaround expertise to urgently address its financial position and deliver on the recommendations and feedback from the Public Accounts Committee and the finance delivery unit.
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I will be interested in the evaluation from the pilot to understand not if it's applicable to mid and west Wales but, actually, if it's potential national learning as well. In the transformation fund that we launched alongside 'A Healthier Wales', we were really clear about wanting to understand projects that weren't just applicable to a small community but had the potential to scale up...
Vaughan Gething: We're providing support in a number of ways, including increasing our investment in the mental health ring fence across Wales to £679 million in 2019-20. We're also investing in prevention and early intervention in mid and west Wales, for example through our schools inreach and social prescribing pilots.
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I can confirm that I've got a full programme of ministerial business that means that I won't be able to attend myself. I'll check with my officials about the level of our engagement with the Cure Parkinson's Trust. I don't think there has been official engagement with officials at present, but I want to say it's not just about whether they can or can't attend the short-notice event next...
