2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:44 pm on 11 June 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 3:44, 11 June 2019

I thank Mick Antoniw for raising this issue, and, of course, we do have frequent opportunities to discuss various aspects of Brexit and the impact that it might have on people in Wales across all parts of life, not least including the health service and health provision. The US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, has said that healthcare will be a strong focus of any post-Brexit trade deal between the two countries, and that should be of real concern to us, because, clearly, the US wants the UK to buy more of its drugs after Brexit, but also it wants Britain to pay more. Medicines in the UK currently cost about a third of what they cost in the USA, and there really is a grave danger that any deal could undermine one of the UK's most prized health system components, and that is the value assessments conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the All Wales Medicine Strategy Group on new medicines to keep costs in proportion with how well those medicines work. And that does limit the amount that is then paid out to drug manufacturers. So, clearly this is an area of real concern to us. Decisions about the future of the Welsh NHS will continue to be taken here in Wales, and we have been very clear that the Welsh NHS is not up for sale, and these are messages that we will strongly continue to be pushing to the UK Government.