Public Consultations

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:28 pm on 31 January 2018.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 2:28, 31 January 2018

Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I'm sure, as you agree, it's very important that they do engage with the public. AMBU has recently gone through three, or is going through three, public consultations—thoracic surgery prior to Christmas, and it's currently going through the major trauma network consultation and the boundary changes. I'm hearing that, in fact, the take-up by the public in some of these public meetings is very, very small. Surely it's important that health boards, when they recognise that there are not many people attending, become proactive and actually go back out to the people to get the consultation. Otherwise, there's a report saying very little because people haven't been attending. People may not attend because they don't know. Many of my constituents didn't know these consultations were going on. We need to get them out there. They have to get engaged with the people. They have to recognise that, if they're not talking to them, if they're not attending—go back out and start again so that consultation becomes meaningful and not lip service.