6. Debate on the Public Accounts Committee Report on the NHS Wales Informatics Systems

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:19 pm on 30 January 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 4:19, 30 January 2019

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I thank all of the Members who've contributed to today's debate? It might have been a little shorter than some debates that we have in this Chamber, but I think that all of the points that Members made were well made and to be welcomed.

There have been some recurrent themes that have been touched on by all Members, starting with Mohammad Asghar, who mentioned the issues of transparency and the need for openness. I think we need to know the scale of the problem before us, and to accept that so that we can find solutions—that's key. And that's what PAC reports like this are here to do: to shed light on those areas where things are failing—respecting the fact that there are other areas where progress is being made and success is happening—those areas that are failing, like in this area, need to be put right. 

Helen Mary Jones reminds us she's not easily shocked, but you are right to be shocked or taken aback by this report. It is a hard-hitting report—I don't make any bones about that. It is a scathing report. It doesn't hold any punches, because it is reporting on the evidence that we received, and deep concerns that were in some sectors about the problems that we're facing with the informatics in the NHS. As you said, Helen Mary, this isn't a theoretical debate. It's actually, as I speak here now, as you spoke earlier—out there in Wales, it is affecting real people, it's affecting staff and it's affecting patients. Perhaps 50 years ago when computers were, well, certainly in their infancy and informatics probably wasn't even imagined, these sorts of issues were obviously not relevant. But now they are. They're relevant to other areas of life and they're increasingly relevant to the health service.

I'm glad, Helen Mary, that you quoted Lee Waters—Lee Waters, a previous member and a valued member of the Public Accounts Committee. I know that these are issues—a different hat on now, of course, so you're not part of this debate today, but you put a lot of work in with the rest of the committee and that's to be welcomed as well. Digital transformation, when you quoted Lee, is about being open. That echoes Mohammad Asghar's earlier comments as well. That's what we're trying to achieve here. 

Turning to the Minister's response—and I think it's a well-meaning response, as Helen Mary said, it's a response that contained a lot in it to be welcomed. Thank you for the spirit that you delivered it in, Minister, and thank you for your evidence that you gave to the committee. I'm pleased that the Welsh Government has accepted our recommendations. I'm pleased more than anything because they need to be accepted. You're right: we all want improvement in this area.

The issue that we have—one of the predominant, overriding issues—is the pace of change. It cannot be right that Assembly Members who were here back in the early days of devolution, when we were discussing exactly the same problems, have now come back and everything is as it was. That can't be right. So, pace is the issue. Yes, there have been improvements, yes, things have moved on in some areas, but it needs to happen quicker. We need to have capacity. We need to have a capacity within the Welsh Government, within the NHS system—a capacity and the skills that are required to put this situation right. The committee wasn't convinced that that capacity is there at the moment. There was evidence of capability in the system—we had a long discussion about the difference between capability and capacity—but there were concerns about the scale of that capacity. 

Outages—Members mentioned the number of outages. I'm pleased to hear there haven't been any since last September because, quite frankly, with the scale of some of the outages that were happening, they were really holding the system back and holding progress back. That has to be sorted out so that we can move on.

There is support for change—within the Welsh Government, dare I say, within this Chamber itself—of course there is support for change across the board. We all want this sorted out. It is going to take money, but it's also going to take a change of mindset—or a moving on of the mindset is probably a better way to put it—because there is undoubtedly a desire, amongst all the stakeholders that we took evidence from, for this position to be improved. But we're nowhere near there yet. We're on a road, but we want to get where we're going far faster than we are. Let's give the NHS the informatics system that it deserves. Let's give the people of Wales, patients and staff the system that they deserve and need. We've waited a long time. I plead with the Minister to employ your commitment to this to make sure that we do get an improvement in the informatics system that we all want to see.