Part of 3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 3:37 pm on 1 March 2017.
And those are part of the challenges that I’ve put to the health board and within the service. And it is the case that people do talk to each other across the service. Emergency department consultants talk to each other, and lead nurses talk to each other about practice within their departments. So, there is a genuine attempt to share learning. But you’re right—the Heath has a significantly lower proportion and number of people who wait more than 12 hours to be seen, treated and discharged. That’s part of the challenge that I think has been recognised in my response to Dai Lloyd, actually, about recognising that it’s a whole-system problem within the whole-hospital system, as well as outside it. And if you can’t deal with some of the challenges about being able to move people, not just into an emergency department, but through that department, and either out of the hospital altogether, or into the hospital, if that’s the appropriate place for them, that’s part of the reason why some people wait too long. And I recognise there are too many people waiting too long. And I’ve never tried to soft-soap that, or cover over that.
It’s really about: will we see a determined increase in the ability to deliver within this health board, and in others, to make sure that fewer people wait 12 hours to be seen, treated and discharged, and how we build on the successful trial of 111? It’s been a really successful innovation, and, again, compared to what happened in England, where they had real challenges in 111 actually delivering a greater number of people to be referred into emergency departments, that hasn’t happened. And there’s good evidence that 111 is actually taking people away from that department by providing them with alternative pathways for care. So, there are positives within the whole system, but no lack of understanding from this Government, or the health service, that there are still continued challenges and further improvements that all of us expect to see take place.