3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Unscheduled Care Winter Delivery

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 12 February 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:07, 12 February 2019

Thank you for the series of questions. I'll begin with your last point, because it was covered in the amber review. There was a review of the conditions in the different categorisations, in red, amber 1 and amber 2, and your personal view is not supported by the clinicians who undertook the review. We're taking a proper evidence base as to the categorisation of healthcare conditions, but also to look at improvement within the amber category in any event. And as I said in my statement, I'll be reporting back to Members this summer on the progress being made in delivering that and, of course, I'll expect to report again at the end of the implementation period for the recommendations made in that review. As I indicated in my statement, that work is due to carry on until November of this calendar year.

On your broader point about the flu jab, again, I expect that, as part of the wider review into this winter, we'll look again at the overall success of persuading the public and our staff to take up the opportunity offered by protection from the flu jab. We'll look again at the most successful parts of our system, both for employees as well as the ability to persuade people to take up their flu jabs, whether at GP surgeries or at pharmacies. In fact, this morning I had to call into my own general practice, and the wall was plastered with posters about getting your flu jab for those people at increased risk. So, certainly, the information being provided there in both languages was very, very visible, and I know that it's something that has been discussed and will be discussed again with employers about the success, or otherwise, of persuading staff to take up the flu jab in each part of our system. And you'll know that this winter, of course, we've rolled out the opportunity for staff in residential care to receive the flu jab from the health service as well, so I'll be open and transparent about success and what measures we propose to take at the end of this winter as well.

On the Red Cross, I'm glad that there's broadly a welcome for it, and it's been very, very warmly welcomed by staff and by people who are engaged in the service themselves as well. It is a pilot, and it's a pilot that is due to run at the end of March, and we will then evaluate it to understand the impact that it has had. We will then—I will then have to make a decision about whether to recommission that, whether it will be a regular recommission, whether it will be a seasonal recommission if the evidence supports it in winter, or whether it's a regular part and feature of our system. We will need to understand from the Red Cross about their ability to supply that service, should the evaluation show that it's of the sort of value where we would want to sustain it. 

On your broader point about money, I confirmed in a previous statement that of the share of the money that's gone out, north Wales had the highest share of the moneys announced. I'll happily recirculate to Members the share of that between different health boards and their partners.

On your broader point about the experience of care when you started off your contributions and comments, I would not try to say that the picture that you paint from your constituency is one that I would wish anyone to have in any emergency department in any part of the country. And the challenge for us is not just understanding that that has taken place, but our ability to do something different about it. Now that, for me, isn't just about the front door, and we regularly rehearse this—it isn't just about ambulances and the front door. And actually, it isn't always about bed capacity. And one of the interesting things about the conversation with the college of emergency medicine has been their focus on, yes, wanting more staff, but actually, their other big focus has been about wanting more resource to go into social care, because they recognise that the medically fit people within any of the hospitals almost always equal the pressure they have at the front door, and actually being able to get those medically fit people out of the hospital requires the support of social care and the third sector for that to be able to happen.

Now, for me, the frustration is how fast we're able to move, bearing in mind the demand that we continue to see coming through our front door. We know that we have managed to support more people outside of emergency departments this winter. If we hadn't taken those measures, we'd have more people in our emergency departments. We need to do progressively more each winter just to keep pace with the demand that we know exists in our whole system. But it isn't just emergency departments that see that pressure, our colleagues in primary care do as well.

So, if you want to provide me with the details from your constituent, I'll happily make sure they're looked at, but the focus will be on the whole system and, in particular, how we support people to leave a hospital and be supported, so they're not readmitted and they're not returning to hospital without having had the appropriate support and care outside of our hospital system.