Ambulance Response Times in South Wales West

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 13 December 2017.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:25, 13 December 2017

I think you neatly highlight the point that I was trying to address in response to Caroline Jones's supplementary, that overall our service is good. The great majority of people receive a timely response that properly meets the care need, and actually we now have a better prospect of getting to people with the highest level of care need because of the changes we have made. But, there is a recognition that some people do wait too long. You've highlighted four instances where I wouldn't try to tell you that everything is fine. I'd be very interested, if you wanted to write to me with more detail on those, so that I can have them properly investigated, but there's something about not standing up here and saying everything is awful, and then equally not trying to stand up here and saying, 'Everything is fine, so don't criticise.' It's important for us to understand what doesn't work as well, and then to honestly look to address it. So, if you want to give me the individual instances you've raised, I'll look at whether they're individual matters or part of the system-wide challenge that I've already tasked the chief ambulance services commissioner with actually looking to address for us.