Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:03 pm on 31 January 2018.
Cabinet Secretary, I think that Bethan Jenkins has made some very good points, and they're points that have been made to many others as Assembly Members from across Wales. I met with my own local community health council last year, and they were concerned about some of the possible proposals to come forward from the Welsh Government in this area. They're not averse to change and they understand that the system, the sector, does have to change. In terms of the structure—whether it's a national body or a local body—that's ultimately for you to decide, but will you, however, ensure that you do listen to patients, ensure that there is a patients' voice as part of this system, whatever structure that may be? Let's not lose that vital aspect of the current CHC system, which sees volunteers going into hospitals, seeing on the ground with spot checks problems that are happening, problems that patients are facing. These are what we really need to hear fed back to the system; we don't just want a bureaucracy that doesn't have the patient's voice at the centre of it.