1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on access to the health service in the Rhondda? OAQ(5)0148(HWS)

Thank you for the question. Cwm Taf university health board, with its partners, continues to develop and deliver its plan to improve access to services to meet the health and well-being needs of people living in the Rhondda, as locally as possible.

On this significant day in politics, I think it’s worth noting that 22 per cent of general practitioners in Cwm Taf university health board are not originally from the UK. The constituency that I live in and represent relies heavily on doctors from overseas. This is not a new phenomenon, I’m sure, and it’s not a unique situation to ours locally. There are now serious concerns about how withdrawal from the EU will affect Wales’s ability to attract doctors from overseas in the future. Cabinet Secretary, what work is your department carrying out to ensure that the impact of EU withdrawal is minimised on our health services here in Wales?

I recognise fully the point that the Member for the Rhondda makes. It’s a concern, as you know, of this Government, too. In the aftermath of the referendum, and since then, we’ve made absolutely clear that members of staff and members of our communities from within the European Union and further afield are welcome here, not just as workers in our health and care services, but as citizens of our communities. Of course, you’re right to point out that there are significant numbers of people from outside of this country, from the Indian sub-continent in particular, but also those who are European Union citizens. Both the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council have done their own surveys, which show that a significant number of healthcare workers and doctors within our UK health system are reconsidering their future in the UK as a direct result of Brexit.

We are, of course, trying to consider and plan for future scenarios. The challenge is: until we have a viable plan before us as to what that means, it’s very difficult for us as a Government to have those conversations with the healthcare workers. We will be absolutely clear about the consistency of the message from this Government that people are welcome to stay and are valued, not just as workers but as part of our communities, but also I’ll continue to meet doctors’ representatives and other healthcare professionals themselves to discuss it. In fact, I’m due to meet the BMA to discuss this very issue next week.

Cabinet Secretary, pharmacists are very well placed to help GPs and improve access, therefore, to GP services, particularly around the management and review of medicines. I do think we could do better in this regard because there’s a lot of evidence that the poor use of medicines, or sometimes inappropriate use as well, is dragging back some of the health outcomes that we could otherwise gain.

Yes, I quite agree with you, which is why we’ve already invested in the Choose Pharmacy platform, the information technology platform that allows people to go for the minor ailments scheme to a range of pharmacies. Cwm Taf was one of the leading areas in Wales in delivering that, including in the Rhondda constituency that we’re discussing today. They’ve made the most progress of any health board in ensuring that the Choose Pharmacy facility is available.

It’s more than that; it is also about looking again at the previous initiatives I’ve announced, making sure that the payment for pharmacies isn’t just by volume, but the commitment we’ve made not to introduce the cuts they’ve had in England is also about delivering quality, not just volume, in the service provided, but also there’s the work that I’ve instigated with the chief pharmaceutical officer to discuss reviewing the medicines release scheme, and, actually, in particular, hospital pharmacies and what they do and what we could potentially get done on a community basis as well—that would help people to leave hospital on a more rapid basis, reinforcing the need for community services, and also mean that hospital pharmacies do what they really do need to do rather than having a longer wait for people to leave hospital. So, I agree entirely with you on the policy direction. The challenge is how fast we can move on an agreed area of practice.