Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 19 September 2017.
First Minister, can I concur with Jayne Bryant’s comments, and also welcome the opening of the new hospice at Malpas? As chief executive, Emma Saysell, has said, this is a landmark development and will hopefully plug previously identified gaps in provision over the last few years, and I’m sure it will go from strength to strength.
You’ll know, First Minister, I frequently raise the issue of motor neurone disease in this Chamber and its devastating impact on sufferers, estimated at up to 5,000 across the UK at any one time. A key finding of the recent Demos report into the financial effect of MND on sufferers and their families has said that services can often be slow to respond to MND sufferers’ needs because of the rapidity of the progress of the disease. So, can you undertake to look again at the provision of services, including hospice and palliative care in Wales, to ensure that—yes, we’ve got a wonderful new building in Malpas, and that’s one part of the jigsaw—the services that are provided are able to keep pace with sufferers of complex diseases such as MND?