Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 15 June 2016.
Thank you for the question. We rehearsed this argument before the election and I’m sure we will do more than once afterwards. I don’t see the Member’s re-election to his constituency as a referendum on this particular issue. There are real challenges in this area between a very clear demand for locality versus the quality of the service that is provided as well, and you’ll be aware that the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health reviewed the changes to the services that had been made, in maternity and neonatal services, and they came back and confirmed that no person’s care had been compromised, no-one had suffered any clinical harm from the changes and, in fact, it had improved the service being provided to your constituents. Now, that’s the most up-to-date clinical advice and evidence. I just do not believe that any Minister of any party in this position would, on the basis of that evidence, decide to change the service, because to do so we be to fly in the face of that evidence and, I believe, would be agreeing to provide a worse service for the people of Pembrokeshire because of the public noise made about wanting services to be provided locally. We need to have a balance in understanding those services that need to be provided in specialist centres. We need a smaller number of those across the country to provide actually better outcomes for our people and, at the same time, to understand what services we really do need to provide locally and more of those services in a primary and community setting where possible. I appreciate I’m unlikely to persuade the Member to change his position in today’s exchange, but, as I said in my first response, I will be guided by the very best most up-to-date clinical evidence and advice, and where that tells me that changing a service back to the way it was is not the right thing to do for people in Pembrokeshire, I will not do it because I do not think that that is a responsible thing for me to do.