2. Will the Minister outline the Welsh Government's support for people with muscular dystrophy? OAQ53958

Thank you for the question. Our support for people living with all neurological conditions is set out within our neurological conditions delivery plan. The vision is for people with a neurological condition to have timely access to fully integrated primary, community, secondary and specialist care designed around the needs of the individual person.

Okay. Thank you very much for that reply. As you will know, I chair the cross-party group on muscular dystrophy and we spend a lot of time talking about how clinicians deal with, or don't have the capacity to deal with, the particular condition. In one example in west Wales, one woman said a clinician tried to give her medication that was incompatible with her condition that could've led to creating very serious harm. Another gentleman from mid Wales said that he actually doesn't bother calling the local hospital or any emergency service because of the lack of understanding in that particular hospital of anything to do with his condition.

Obviously I'll write to you with those individual concerns, but I was wondering if you would agree to come and meet with the cross-party group in future to see how you can understand what is being discussed there and how we can build resilience in the system, so that there are more clinicians with an understanding of muscular dystrophy, if not a specialism, so that they can aid and help them feel more comfortable when they enter that setting.

That is the point about what we're looking to try to deliver: a service that is genuinely designed around the needs of the person; to understand those needs will be different according to that person, not the condition. You see the person, not the condition and that is the way on all aspects of healthcare to be delivered. I recognise there's further to travel in some aspects than others. In principle, I'd be happy to attend a future meeting of the cross-party group. I already meet the alliance of neurological conditions, and I recognise that for all the excellent work that takes place across our service, there is always a need to change and to reform. Part of my frustration is that we don't change as consistently as we would like to, as, indeed, I believe that the people that we serve deserve us to.

Can I add, Minister, to Bethan's point? We've all had casework in this area and time and again people with muscular dystrophy or other neuromuscular conditions emphasise the importance of specialist posts like specialist nurses who can train other medical staff, but also enable people to live with conditions that can last many years, decades sometimes. We really do need to see an improvement in the number of specialist posts.

And that's part of the work that the implementation group are leading. I've actually asked my officials to meet with the implementation group to look at the progress that we are making because I do think progress has been slower than it should have been, and commitments that were made within the delivery plan on how the money that the Government has allocated should be used. I expect there to be a meeting between relevant parties, including the third sector, later this month because I do want to see real progress being made, and the promises that we are making and the expectation that people should have about the service to be met in reality and not simply in theory.