3. Urgent Question: Abertawe Bro Morgannwg, Cardiff and Vale and Hywel Dda Local Health Boards

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:51 pm on 13 September 2016.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:51, 13 September 2016

Thank you for the series of questions. There are a range of different challenges in each of the boards, as I have mentioned before, and I’ve discussed the financial challenge of Hywel Dda and the fact that, for Cardiff and Vale, one of the areas for their move to targeted intervention was our confidence in their ability to balance their books this year and through the next iteration of their intermediate plan. ABM does not appear to us to be a challenge about their finance in particular, but I do take on board seriously the point about the fact that there should be no slippage in the areas of performance that are working well whilst they actually address the areas of targeted intervention. That will be taken forward in our normal accountability frameworks and mechanism. I will speak to the chair on a regular basis whilst they’re in targeted intervention. There will be another routine meeting of the tripartite advisory group—the chief executive of NHS Wales, the Wales Audit Office and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales—in the spring to provide an update and advice for me on the progress of each organisation in the areas of targeted intervention. So, there will be clarity and, again, I expect to make a statement to Members in the usual course, once that meeting has taken place. But, there are many significant progress measures in ABM—for example, diagnostics, where again significant progress has been made and broadly sustained over this year as well. They’ve also made real significant progress in their waiting times as well. The challenge is doing more of that and, at the same time, dealing with the areas of targeted intervention. I think this action should be seen as both supportive and helpful in allowing that organisation to do what it should do for the population that it serves.