7. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: Winter Delivery Planning

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:41 pm on 13 November 2018.

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Photo of Gareth Bennett Gareth Bennett UKIP 5:41, 13 November 2018

Thanks, Minister, for your statement today. Just a couple of points to raise. Vaccination has been mentioned a couple of times. You describe in your statement that you're now encouraging social care staff to get vaccinated, which is a good development. There was an issue a couple of years ago that there was actually a less than 50 per cent take-up of the flu vaccination from within the NHS staff. I guess a lot of this is due to actually publicising the availability. Are you confident that there's going to be a much better take-up this year?

You're right about encouraging people to not always see a doctor and that sometimes, they're better off going to see the local pharmacist, so you're directing people to try and see the pharmacist where possible, which is, again, a good development. Of course, it does raise the ongoing issue of the co-location, which was a recommendation of the health committee a couple of years ago after their inquiry. They wanted pharmacy services co-located within A&E departments. I wondered if you'd had further reflections on that.

And with the telephone advice, yes, there's obviously going to be a need for more telephone advice. Are more people being taken on to offer this advice and are they being trained well enough to give reliable advice? Because, obviously, that's what the public need to be convinced of. It's a very challenging job, so I'd be interested to hear how the training is going and how you're going to offer increased capacity this winter. Diolch yn fawr.