Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 11 June 2019.
Well, Llywydd, I think we've rehearsed this tired old trope a number of times on the floor of the Assembly. I'm glad that the Member recognised that there have been improvements in services in mental health. When I was the health Minister, there were very significant concerns about mental health services in north Wales, as Members here will know. I was pleased to see the most recent report by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales that commented on the improvements at the Hergest unit, in the unit at Wrexham Maelor, on the way that services in community hospitals in north Wales for people who are elderly and with mental health conditions have improved in recent times. So, it's good to recognise where improvement is being made, because it is by recognising and encouraging improvement that we get further progress, rather than by constantly trying to point to difficulties and make those seem as though they were typical of the experience of patients. Patients in north Wales get, every single day, in thousands and thousands of encounters with the health service, some of the best care that you will find anywhere in the country. Where there are things that need to be done better, of course we will continue to work on those things. But it doesn't help to bring about that improvement by failing to recognise it and treating the whole of that service as though it were something that was not valued by patients—because I can tell him that it certainly is.