5. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the progress of clinical research and innovation in the Welsh NHS? OAQ(5)0199(HWS)

Thank you for the question. Research and innovation are key criteria for university health board designations in Wales and form part of the NHS Wales planning framework. As a Government, we have committed over £29 million in this financial year to continue our investment in high-quality research and technology-focused innovation within the NHS.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. The clinical research innovation centre at St Woolos Hospital is an excellent example of investment by Aneurin Bevan health board that allows researchers and staff to participate in groundbreaking research in areas including dementia, diabetes and cancer. Last year, over 17,000 participants participated in nearly 480 clinical research studies, which helps researchers develop new treatments and ensures that patients have access to those closer to home. What plans does the Cabinet Secretary have to work with the centre, health boards and others to ensure that support and encouragement of patients, carers and staff fully embrace research and make it a core activity within the NHS in Wales?

I thank the Member for the question. I enjoyed our visits—well, my visits—to your constituency to meet staff within the Aneurin Bevan university health board. I was struck by the range of activity that was being undertaken. That’s part of the £21 million that we fund through Health and Care Research Wales. The additional £8 million, when I refer to the £29 million, comes from the Efficiency Through Technology fund. There’s a range of different routes to getting there. But, actually, this is really important for not just having staff who are committed and who want to understand what more they can do, but actually to improve outcomes and the quality of care that is delivered. As I said, it is a key part of university health board designation and status. It also forms part of the criteria for approving or not approving an integrated medium-term plan. So, this is embedded within our planning framework, and I expect to see it in our regular meetings with chairs, in their appraisals, to make sure that research and innovation are a key part of what the health boards are actually undertaking today, to ensure that we improve healthcare for tomorrow.

Cabinet Secretary, it was a pleasure accompanying you to the turf-cutting ceremony at the new critical care centre, now known as the Grange university hospital, on Monday in Cwmbran. I did tweet a nice picture of us, with you with a shovel digging the foundations. This new hospital has been a long time in the pipeline, as we know, and you have the virtue of being the Minister who actually got to cut the turf—many of your predecessors didn’t get around to doing that. But, would you agree with me that it’s more than just about the building? We want to see that the new hospital develops into a world-class centre of excellence and innovation. I know it was once considered as a possible centre for neuroscience, but I think that fell by the wayside. So, what work are you doing, and is the Welsh Government doing, to ensure that when the new hospital does finally open—hopefully in a few years’ time—that it really will be a hospital that will be world class, that will be something that the people of south Wales can be really proud of, and that will attract the brightest and best medical staff?

I think it should make a real and significant difference in remodelling healthcare right across the Gwent area and beyond. It’s due to open, as you know, in spring 2021, when the Grange university hospital should be open for business. It’s important, in terms of the question that Jayne Bryant asked and the point that you make, to understand that the way in which we deliver services isn’t simply about delivering excellent healthcare—research and innovation have to take place alongside and through that as well. So, I do expect there to be a keen focus on research and innovation when that hospital opens, not just at the point of opening but throughout the period of time, because that is part of attracting and retaining staff there.

So, for example, the moves that have already been made to have a hyperacute stroke unit, currently based in the Royal Gwent—a lot of that is actually about having a different service model that has allowed it to attract, recruit and retain high-quality staff who would not otherwise have come into an old model of care. The research that is already ongoing there should be carried forward within a new model of delivering healthcare as well. So, for me, it’s a key part of what we’re investing in for the future, not just the bricks and the mortar.

Cabinet Secretary, what are you doing to promote clinical research in rural health here in Wales?

Interestingly, I’ve had a range of conversations with people in the mid Wales collaborative, with Aberystwyth University and with Bronglais hospital, but also I attended last week the research and innovation day at Trinity college Carmarthen, which looked at a range of research and innovation activities right across the Hywel Dda health board area. There’s a very clear signal from this Government that we expect that work to continue, because there are a number of people who want to undertake activities in areas where they know they’ll have to work, effectively, in an urban area or in a city-based service, but there are lots of other people who specifically want to work in rural medicine. We need to make sure that our service doesn’t just provide the services people who live in rural communities want to undertake, but that we understand the best-quality evidence that is available about how to deliver that service safely and securely in a way that values the choices people make to live in rural communities so that they receive high-quality healthcare too.