3. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: The Seventieth Anniversary of the NHS

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:38 pm on 3 July 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:38, 3 July 2018

Thank you for your comments. Funnily enough, you mentioned Julian Tudor Hart—I know a man whom you have met several times yourself—I last met him at the south west Wales faculty of the Royal College of General Practitioners, and he still had plenty to say at that point in time, as he always did. I recognise what you say about sharing risk and sharing benefit, and we see developed countries—not just developing world countries, developed countries—where they don't have the same privileged access that we enjoy as a right in this country, the United States being the most obvious example, where people still cannot afford what we would think of as basic healthcare.

On your challenge about social care funding, of course, in 'A Healthier Wales', we committed to reviewing the future needs on a social care basis and to do that in partnership with local government and, in particular, the Association of Directors for Social Services, but also to review the funding to go with that as well. In that regard, in the last week we had the report from Gerry Holtham, looking at the future and potential options for how we might choose to use our powers in this place to fill the gap in social care funding. I would be delighted if we did not need to do so, if there was a different settlement at a UK level for public services, but we should not wait for that to be the case. His proposal of creating a fund that is ring-fenced for social care purposes is particularly interesting, and Ministers across the Government are looking at those proposals to try and understand what that would mean for us. I look forward to a range of cross-sector engagement and involvement in what those proposals mean, because this is a challenge for the country and not just for one political party.