Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:40 pm on 11 January 2017.
Thank you very much indeed for your response, Cabinet Secretary. I have to tell you that I was expecting something a little bit more forensic, given that we were asking for a status report—an update report. In fact, in your amendment, which you tabled to this motion, you said that you’d be providing a status report. What you’ve done is given us a whole series of opinions and also examples of good practice, which I utterly, utterly welcome, but what I don’t see—. This is my job: my job is to challenge you and to question you about what’s going on in the national health service. It’s your job to then hold to account the health boards. What we don’t see or feel, from the health boards, is that true liaison and collaboration with the general practitioners, who are one of the two main front doors to the health service, and who are under immense pressure, and A&E, the second main front door to the national health service, which is also under immense pressure, as the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said.
I don’t hear and didn’t hear any reference to liaison and collaboration with the domiciliary care sector and with care homes, because we need them to be fully functioning and ensure that those plans are in place. What I’m basically asking you for, Minister, is for you to convince us all that you have got those seven health boards at your fingertips. They have plans—. They said that they had plans in place to manage winter pressures and that you are measuring them—measuring their ability to deliver and measuring their outcomes. I look forward to the status report that you said in your amendment you would provide, because I think that you are the only one with the big enough stripes to really hold those health boards to account to ensure that our staff are not worked so hard that they can’t cope and that our public receive the care and support they need at a tricky time of the year.