I, too, welcome this report from the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. When considering the challenges facing our healthcare system, we must do so in a way that fundamentally incorporates health and social care, as a complete circle, as noted in this report. No-one is denying the many pressures facing health and social care, and we are fully aware that, during the colder months, it is obvious there is going to be a seasonal spike. The report highlighted a number of serious causes for concern in terms of the level of preparedness and the ability of both sectors to cope: individuals living longer; respiratory complications over the winter months; hospital infection rates peaking at various times of the year; and, of course, delayed transfers of care and readmissions are all pressures at this time of the year.

Readmission into hospital is costly and often avoidable. Latest figures from Age Cymru show that over 15,000 over-75s in Wales were readmitted to hospital within just 30 days of discharge. Having adopted a care in the community model is applaudable, but, in my view, there has been a tendency to cut down the number of beds in our hospital wards with a natural assumption that these beds will then simply be occupied at home and with a complete package of care available to the patient on arrival home.

Reablement support across Wales, certainly in north Wales, is inconsistent and patchy. Where it works well, we know that 70 per cent of people then go on to no longer require support or need further hospitalisation. That has to be the ambition of this Government and also anyone working in the health and social care sector.

The Royal Voluntary Service highlights the inconsistency and complexity of reablement services delivered by local authorities and health boards. There is no definite standard of reablement across Wales. The spend per head by local authorities on reablement services can be up to 10 times more in some areas than others. Good care in the community for an individual often requires a fully integrated care package tailored to that person’s own particular and complex needs, and can often also require the input of a social worker, care providers, district nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, GP provision and sometimes even a dietician. The latter, of course, to address any nutritional or hydration issues. Again, all agencies working in a consistent and well-communicated manner is vital in order to ward off, for instance, any potential infections, to maintain good skin integrity, and generally to support the overall well-being of those receiving their care out of the hospital setting, but inside their own home.

Further evidence taken at committee stage noted that social care is now at tipping point, and we all know the loss in our constituencies of many of our nursing homes and a shortage of care provider agencies. Indeed, Care Forum Wales state that we are only one significant nursing home failure from complete calamity in any part of Wales. They go on to say that there isn’t anywhere in any health board in Wales where they could sustain 60 individuals quickly, following the closure of a home. Can Wales’s policy adjustments such as the introduction of stay-at-home assessments, called for by Altaf Hussain here as a Welsh Conservative, could provide a key early intervention measure, preventing hospitalisation, avoiding delayed transfers of care upon leaving hospital, and easing the pressures for our hospital wards at peak intervals. The report recommends the co-location of primary care services into A&E departments, and I just ask myself why this isn’t happening and why you reject the recommendation. As they say, it is a no-brainer. The whole purpose of taking evidence in committees I thought was to better inform Welsh Government as to how concerns raised by our professionals—those actually carrying out health and social care—and to educate on what is needed. That is the whole purpose of why we’re here and why it’s called scrutiny. I would urge the Welsh Government to accept the recommendations made, all of them, and to implement them, and I would like to thank Dai Lloyd, Assembly Member, and all the members of this committee for such an excellent report. Thank you.