Occupational Therapists in North Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:31 pm on 23 May 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:31, 23 May 2018

Well, I think it's a bit of a stretch to move from occupational therapy to the stress-related absences in north Wales, but nevertheless we are looking at what's happened within north Wales. Actually, part of what's happened is that people are more accurately describing their rates of sickness and the reasons for it, because, previously, a number of people chose the 'other' category, and more people are now actually choosing the reason for that. North Wales has actually had one of the better sickness absence records across the national health service. There are a range of measures in place that are being considered to consider how we better support people who deal with what is, at times, a stressful and difficult job. The First Minister answered this question yesterday. We have a number of initiatives in north Wales specifically about that, and I'm more than happy to write to the Member with a range of those initiatives that the health board are undertaking.FootnoteLink