Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 13 December 2017.
I'm happy that Caroline Jones recognised this as a whole-system issue. This is not simply about saying that accident and emergency departments need to either run quicker or faster or more efficiently and that it's just about a hospital issue. It's actually about flow all the way through our healthcare system. So, it's about how we prevent people going unnecessarily into hospital, whether it's a minor injuries unit or a major department. It's about whether people do need to be there, about how quickly they're able to either be seen, treated and discharged, or, if they do need to be monitored, about that taking place, but also the flow through the hospital.
In terms of our use of information technology, well, actually we've just had a soft launch of A&E Waiting Times Live—a pilot done last year in north Wales. It was particularly helpful about helping people to direct themselves to the most appropriate point in the system and to give an indication of likely waiting times at different places. But, more than that, there is the work that is already ongoing at looking at how we anticipate care needs throughout the whole year—not just in winter—in trying to direct people at the most appropriate service. It isn't just about the out-of-hours primary care service; it's still about the regular hours service as well. But I'm also particularly interested in the learning we'll take from 111, with a relatively successful pilot in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Carmarthenshire, because that is partly about out-of-hours but also a much wider suite of issues and equally a constant challenge to try and inform and empower the public to make different choices about how they wish to access care and the most appropriate place for that care to take place.