Diolch, Lywydd. I would also like to thank Plaid Cymru for bringing forward this very important debate on health and social care. My amendment seeks to add to the debate while not detracting from the overall motion. I believe passionately that cottage or community hospitals are a part of the solution to reducing the burden on our emergency departments, reducing delayed transfers of care and reducing the distances people have to travel to receive care. I urge you to support the UKIP amendment.

Moving to the Welsh Conservative amendments, UKIP will be supporting amendments 2 and 3. There is a clear need to address access to health services in rural Wales. Perhaps the Welsh Conservatives will support our calls to re-establish cottage hospitals. We also support the Welsh Conservatives’ call to review the older people’s commissioner role. As others have said, Sarah Rochira does an amazing job, but her role and remit need strengthening and expanding. UKIP also agree with the Welsh Conservatives that the commissioner should be accountable to the Assembly, not the Welsh Government.

With regard to the Welsh Conservatives’ first amendment, we shall be abstaining. We are not convinced that these stay-at-home assessments can achieve the desired outcome that we all share, which is promoting independent living and supporting people to stay in their own homes for as long as is possible.

Llywydd, our NHS is the victim of its own success. Thanks to advances in clinical care, we are living longer. The number of people aged 65 and over is projected to increase 44 per cent by 2039. Unfortunately, as many of us know only too well, with increasing age comes increasing health issues. This fact alone highlights the need for closer integration between health and social care. Far too many older people are experiencing delayed transfers of care and remaining in hospital for longer than needed.

Figures from April 2016 show a total of 495 delayed transfers of care: over half of those resulted in delays of three weeks or more; over 20 people were waiting for 26 weeks or more. It should be of huge concern to us all that so many people are staying weeks longer in hospital than necessary. These unnecessary delays cost our NHS millions of pounds a year, but the cost to the individual is immeasurable. According to Age Cymru, the main facts responsible for delayed transfers of care include a lack of appropriate facilities for re-enablement and recuperation, long delays in arranging services to support people in their own homes, and the barriers that exist between health and social services.

It is worth noting that the majority of NHS leaders said that shortfalls in local authority spending had impacted on their services. I accept there is no one simple fix. There’s no magic pill and there’s certainly no right answer in solving the problem of delayed transfers of care. However, there are some simple fixes that will go a long way in trying to eliminate delayed transfers. Greater integration between health and social care will help. Many NHS trusts in England have reduced delayed transfers by working with local authorities to keep a care-home placement open for 48 hours.

Traditionally, once a person is admitted to hospital, their care placement is ended and a new placement has to be secured once the patient is ready to be discharged. This does take time. This simple change has greatly reduced unnecessary delays. Greater funding for social care will also help. As I mentioned earlier, the NHS Confederation believes that shortfalls in local authority spending have impacted on NHS services. Our social services teams are overstretched and, if we are to have any chance of meeting the challenges of an ageing population, we need to invest in social care.

Finally, greater use of community hospitals will help. Many older people require an extended stay in hospital for observations and social-care needs. Traditionally, we used cottage hospitals for convalescence. Let’s re-establish these cottage hospitals in order to take the burden off our local, busy, hospital wards.

Llywydd, I urge Members to support our amendment and to support the Plaid Cymru motion. Diolch yn fawr.