7. Welsh Conservatives Debate: NHS Capacity

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:58 pm on 17 October 2018.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 5:58, 17 October 2018

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Yes, it's always easy, isn't it, to make yourself try and look better just because another Government might be doing worse than they used to. That does not disguise the fact that you are still producing the poorest health results across the UK. Can I thank everyone who took part in this debate, please? I'm sorry I'm not going to have time to respond to it all, because I don't have much time. But this debate was essentially about the difference between a vision, which a lot of us were behind, and that lived experience of our constituents—and, indeed, our doctors, judging from what Dai Lloyd said.

Angela Burns's example of the gentleman who was waiting five hours just to go a few hundred yards is not unique, but it is illustrative of the problems that we were trying to raise in this debate and hoping to get some sensible response from the Government on. Because, Cabinet Secretary, I'm sure you're not thrilled by those out-of-hours statistics either, or the delayed transfer of care statistics, how long ambulances are waiting outside hospitals—I'm not very happy with you pulling your statement on ambulance times, by the way—or, in fact, the fact that paramedics, 8.8 per cent of them, are off sick. [Interruption.] But all this is happening on your watch.

We're all behind you with this parliamentary review direction, following the work that was done on that, towards improved community care—it was a policy direction we were all tending to follow anyway—but we are not feeling it, and that is why your amendment is so hollow. The references to social care we tend to hear here are still feeling like an afterthought compared to the health service. We have examples in my own constituency of temporary closures of services and clinics—temporary that become permanent, because staff get redeployed; that happened in Maesteg. We have new ideas, like the Red Cross's work with individuals who are making a series of inappropriate 999 calls, being trialled at Morriston. Fantastic results—money pulled. And of course, when you're talking about a social model of community care, it's not just about GPs; it's about people like the Red Cross and the paramedics and the pharmacists and the third sector. 

So, I want you to look at community care, if you like, as a sort of preventative flood plain in which care and well-being of our constituents can be better managed. Flood plains don't just alleviate the effects of storm water further downstream; they create a fertile soil. It's where things grow, where things get better, where you get signs of health. If community care is about preventative care producing those valuable results less stressfully and more efficiently upstream, that's where the investment should be. But if you let these storm waters—and they're increasing; they're all-year-round now—just continue to surge across an arid desert, you're going to stay and remain with the results that we have now.

That 5 per cent cut that Angela Burns spoke about—I know you're talking about in-year increases, but that 5 per cent cut is fundamentally undermining the purposes of 'A Healthier Wales' here, and it doesn't do, as Caroline Jones actually mentioned—. If you're not investing in community care, you are not creating trust in a part of the health service where that trust needs to be created in order to persuade people to move away from the 999 buttons on their phone. 

So, I don't particularly want to wait until next week, Cabinet Secretary. I'm sorry you didn't mention this in your response to this debate, but there is a transformation fund—two, in fact; you mentioned it earlier—and I don't see yet how they're contributing to creating the community care that we need to stop the problems from happening downstream.