Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 7:01 pm on 20 March 2019.
Thank you for the question and the two points. I’m happy to reconfirm the statement set out yesterday by the First Minister. It reconfirms what the health board themselves have said. There is absolutely no threat to 24/7 deliveries being made at the Withybush midwife-led unit, and I do hope that will put an end to the scaremongering that is taking place. It is actively scaring members of the local community who rely on those services.
And I take on board your point about a future hospital. I made the point that they hospital that is being developed now, the Grange University Hospital in Gwent, well, that took several years to agree a plan and then to get to the point where a business case was approved, and I then made the choice to actually invest that money in delivering a hospital. It does take several years to get to the point of the work starting, and, actually, the work to deliver the hospital takes time, of course, to build it. Within that time, services have to be delivered within the current footprint. Any changes around the way services are delivered have to be led by need and the ability to deliver those services. I do not expect there to be a large-scale disinvestment in services from either of the current hospitals, at either Glangwili or, indeed, Withybush, as a result of what might happen in the future on the back of a business plan that I have yet to receive.
It’s also worth pointing out, when we’re talking about services, that a number of concerns were raised about the changes to women’s and children’s services previously, about the concentrating on Glangwili. And, actually, I’ve made choices about investing in those new services to make sure there’s a better service for patients there, to make sure we're investing in neonatal services there, because I said absolutely at the time that it is not appropriate to wait until a future choice is made and not to invest in the current service provision. So, we are actively investing already in the way care is delivered.
And when we talk about A&E services, you should just take a think about the fact that this is a choice that’s been led by staff who deliver those services. The lead consultant in A&E at Glangwili is an advocate for the plan that’s been put forward. He’s not saying, ‘My workplace should not change’. He’s saying that this will deliver better care for people right across the region that we serve. And that’s the voice of staff who live in that part of Wales, the voice of people who deliver the care that is provided, and that is a voice that we should take seriously. And it's certainly one that is in my mind as I make my choices as a Minister for the whole country.
I look forward, though, to continuing to listen to our clinical voices—those clinical voices in the Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health who have confirmed the move in services to Glangwili for neonatal care has improved the quality of care and the compliance with national clinical standards, and better patient outcomes.
As I said at the start, this is a well-rehearsed debate that we may yet return to again. I have previously called for maturity and leadership from all of us, in every party, in taking service change and improvement forward, and I do so again now, because doing nothing is not an option. The quality of care, high quality in terms of experience and outcomes, that is what should drive us. I recognise that change and reform for a purpose are still difficult. However, they are essential if we are to improve healthcare and provide the quality of care and treatment that every community in Wales is entitled to expect.