Hywel Dda University Local Health Board

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 5 June 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:50, 5 June 2019

I'm grateful to the Deputy Minister for her answer. The health Minister himself will be aware of a very distressing individual case that's been brought to me from a family in my region. The gentleman had very complex care needs and an agreed package for him to be able to released from hospital to go home under continuing healthcare. The collapse of Allied Healthcare Ltd led to a situation where the care package that was provided for him at home was unsustainable and, in fact, dangerous. He was then readmitted to hospital. There's been a whole history—and I will happily copy the correspondence to the Deputy Minister—around this, because there has been a whole catalogue of issues that have led to the gentleman being readmitted now, after six months of this, to acute hospital.

I'm wondering if the Deputy Minister will undertake today to make an assessment of how many patients have been affected across Wales by the collapse of Allied Healthcare Ltd. It is, after all, now 12 months since the financial warnings were first made and six months since the company actually collapsed. So, I'd like to know how many patients in Wales have been affected by this. I'm sure that my constituent won't be the only one, unfortunately. Can the Deputy Minister please undertake to investigate how many of these patients still lack an adequate care package and whether that's meant that they're at home and are not receiving the care package they should have, or whether that's meant that perhaps they're inappropriately being placed in residential care?

Could I ask the Deputy Minister, with the Minister, to undertake to look at the effects of this, potentially, on district nursing teams? In this particular individual case, the district nursing team did their best to step into the gap, but that simply wasn't possible. And can the Deputy Minister undertake to have discussions with the Hywel Dda health board—but there may be others across Wales—and the relevant local authorities, to look at what work they're doing to replace the specialist care packages that have been lost by the collapse of Allied Healthcare Ltd? And finally, does the Deputy Minister agree with me that this particular case highlights the risk of depending on private sector companies to provide these extremely important care packages for some of our most vulnerable citizens? Will she undertake to work with local health boards and local authorities to develop more alternative and sustainable models so that no other patient will have to put up with, and no other family will have to put up with, what this family and this gentleman have gone through?