Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 14 March 2018.
Yes, indeed, absolutely. Delayed transfers of care are at the centre of this—managing this transition effectively. And, of course, the right care that I was referring to earlier includes the right mental health care as well, and treatment, in the right setting as well. The good news is that this is not flicking a switch and we've suddenly removed delayed transfers of care overnight to the appropriate setting, but the work that we have been doing has been having real progress. So, I can tell the Member in response to his question that the total number of delayed transfers last year, in 2017, was 750—that's 750 too many, but it's 13 per cent lower than it was the previous year, and it's the lowest full year recorded in the 12 years for which delayed transfers of care statistics have been collected. The all-Wales total of delayed transfers of care in the January 2018 census was 442. Now, we acknowledge that this was slightly up—it was 4 per cent up in comparison with December of the previous year—but it was still, despite those massive pressures we've had this year, the third lowest January in the 12 years we've collected data. So, we're clearly doing something right, but if the Member is happy I think I'll write to him with some detail on specifically what we're doing on mental health as well to clarify, as part of that approach, where we're dealing with making sure it's the right transition for those who also have mental health needs as well.FootnoteLink