Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:58 pm on 12 June 2018.
Thank you for the comments and the questions. I certainly hope that I'm around to see the one hundredth birthday of the national health service—maybe not in this place but around nevertheless. [Interruption.] Well, easy now.
In terms of the three points that you mentioned about digital technology and whether the ability to consult people remotely leads to greater loneliness and isolation, there's a challenge here about understanding what's fit for purpose and how you still understand that human interaction matters for people with some of their health and care services in particular.
Part of our challenge, though, is that, actually, for some people, we recognise that it's difficult for them to move significantly out of their own home and, indeed, the move to have more treatment that is taken out of hospital settings and, indeed, if you do need to see someone based in a hospital, whether that person actually can do that from a remote setting in any event. We already see telemedicine doing this, and lots of members of the public are actually really pleased with what that means and does for them, but the challenge is a greater level of consistency because we've yet to take advantage of all of the efficiencies that could deliver. But also that can make a positive impact on how people don't feel lonely and isolated or the difficulties of getting to larger centres for different aspects of their treatment. That also matters in terms of our ability to use the technology available in terms of how we monitor people remotely and monitor their health and care conditions. So, there's more that we could and should do. Again, we are clear about the need to take advantage of those opportunities.
On your broader point about the intellectual property ownership for what we use, I'd say that there's a challenge about who owns the systems and the software that we would use and, at the same time, making sure that what we have is fit for purpose. Part of the challenge is that you end up developing systems with people who are specialists around the health and social care arena, and some of the challenge comes with the difficulty in procuring large-scale items and also, frankly, in making sure we're getting more and more choices that are 'once for Wales'. Because a large part of the opportunity to get greater gain in health and care outcomes actually comes from sharing that information and enabling that to happen, rather than having competing systems and information, which I'm sure is something that lots of Members will see from their own postbags at various points in time.
Your point about broadband and service provision: we recognise there's a need to invest in our broadband infrastructure to deliver greater public services. Sometimes, that will be into people's homes, sometimes it will be into hubs where people go for their treatment, and they can be local hubs rather than looking to travel a significantly greater distance. That will matter not just in more rural locations, but also in an urban location like the one that I represent, where, actually, being able to go to a more localised venue rather than travelling across the city for a different episode of care will be much more convenient for the individual person. So, there's the capacity to do that, but, crucially, the ability to make sure that our whole system is having a joined-up conversation and sharing information with the right number of health and social care professionals to make the right choices about health and care decisions.