Healthcare Providers and the Planning Process

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:16 pm on 3 October 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:16, 3 October 2018

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. You'll know that I've written to you about this matter that, in practice, very little happens in terms of consultation with the health boards. Many of them do not engage with it properly and it certainly doesn't feed down to the general practice level.

In a number of recent applications involving substantial planning developments in my constituency what we actually found out was that the GP practices themselves are not engaged in the process—they are not statutory consultees, even though the ability to provide vital health services in those communities are important. And we've had GP practices telling us that if certain developments go ahead, they will not be able to deliver the level of health service, and it will have an adverse impact. Isn't it about time that we actually changed the process now so that, when we have such applications—and there are many of them going on in the Taff Ely area—there is a direct and statutory consultation process, engaging with those vital public services, in particular the health services that have such vital information to give, to be taken into account when consideration is given to whether or not to give planning permission?