<p>Helping the NHS Prepare for the Forthcoming Winter </p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 27 September 2016.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 2:09, 27 September 2016

(Translated)

Under the children’s health plan that you published, First Minister, every child under seven is supposed to be given the same consistency of service in winter and summer. So, how do you respond to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s report today on babies born prematurely, which shows that they are given a second-rate service here in Wales? Only 31 per cent, for example, of premature babies are given a crucial second appointment by their second birthday. That is half the percentage across the rest of the UK. Having centralised the service for premature babies—the closure of the unit in Withybush and moving it to Glangwili—they are still given a second-rate service as compared to the best services throughout the UK. Is it empty rhetoric, therefore, when you are unable to provide what is crucially important and fundamental today?