11. Short Debate Fighting for Future Services — The case for protecting services at Withybush hospital

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:53 pm on 20 March 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 6:53, 20 March 2019

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Today's debate is a subject that we have discussed on numerous occasions. As with Paul Davies, I make no apologies to Members—they will hear me reiterate again why services across our national health service must change if we are to provide the health service that the people of Wales need and deserve. That is true for services not just in Pembrokeshire, but across the whole of Wales. So, let me remind Members again of the challenges faced by our NHS, not just in Wales but across the UK: the rise of our older population, enduring inequalities in health, increasing numbers of patients with chronic conditions, a difficult financial climate, and a UK-wide shortage of health professionals in certain specialities that causes difficulties in recruitment in every single nation of the UK.

Now, these are well established facts that we keep returning to. It does the NHS and the public that we serve no good to try and keep re-running old arguments of why things should stay the way they are. The adage, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it', could not be more inappropriate in healthcare. Waiting until it is broken means waiting until real avoidable harm is caused. No public servant, and certainly no Minister, should contemplate doing that. So, our health and care service must change. That was a very clear message from the parliamentary review, which clearly advocated the need for a revolution within our health and care system to meet future demand. It concluded that our current system is not fit for the future. Across the Chamber, parties said they signed up to the recommendations of the parliamentary review, yet, here we are, debating again why change should not happen.