Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 28 March 2017.
Cabinet Secretary, people talk about this in tones of shock and horror as if it’s a surprise, but it’s certainly not a surprise to me when looking at some of the integrated medium term plans. Could you please confirm which of the health boards’ IMTPs showed a deficit from the beginning of this funding round? Could you also confirm to me where you see the health boards could review their spending? Because for all the tough talk from everyone, I assume and hope that doctors and nurses, porters and community health workers will still get paid over the next few months. Thirdly, Cabinet Secretary, do you accept that a number of these health boards have already instigated ambitious savings programmes? Now, these will obviously take time to kick in. Do you think you are giving health boards sufficient time for this to improve? Fourthly, do you welcome the improvement in services that we have seen as a consequence? Many of the health boards’ performance indicators have slowly risen. I know that in Hywel Dda health board it’s the best in Wales in cancer and four-hour A&E delivery times. And would you agree that we wouldn’t want to see reversals in service delivery? Do you accept that we should have a rural uplift for some of the rural health boards, as discussed and promoted by many organisations, not just the health boards themselves? Finally, Cabinet Secretary, could you tell me where Wales is in terms of spending on healthcare as a percentage of gross domestic product? My understanding is that only three countries in Europe spend less than us, and is that not the real problem? We’re just simply not spending enough on healthcare to ensure that boards do not go into deficit. As Andrew R. T. Davies said earlier, the deficit in Wales is double that of the UK.