Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 11 June 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:52, 11 June 2019

Llywydd, it's entirely because we don't have a system that is under the thumb of Welsh Government, as he put it, that we have the calibrated intervention protocols that we operate in Wales, because when a health organisation is put into that system, it is not the decision of the Welsh Government alone; it is a tripartite decision. Making it involves Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, the auditor general and Welsh Government, and it is always an agreed form of intervention that that tripartite system involves, and I'm very comfortable with that, because it shouldn't be a system that is under the thumb of the Welsh Government and it isn't, either. 

There was something that the Member said that I agreed with, and that is that encouraging those people who are charged with trying to bring about improvement in our health service is really important, and recognising when things are going well, as well as when things are not going as well as we want them, ought to be a very important part of the repertoire that Government deploys in order to support those people who, at that front line, have to make those decisions every day. 

As far as CHCs are concerned, I think we have a proud history in that area, Llywydd. We retained CHCs here in Wales when they were abolished across our border, and we've always supported them in the work that they do. Now there is an opportunity, in the legislation that will come before the National Assembly, to make sure that, with the part that CHCs play in the quality arrangements that we have in the Welsh NHS, we maximise the contribution that those local voluntary people have in being the eyes and ears of patients. Members will have every opportunity during the passage of the Bill to scrutinise those proposals and to see that they deliver on that agenda of making certain that we have people in every part of the health service in Wales who are able to report on what they see, draw it to the attention of those who are paid to run our health services, and to capitalise on the enormous contribution that volunteers make to the health service in Wales.