Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 23 October 2019.
We’ve got a variety of challenges to try and address, and something we are deliberately doing is exactly that on our Choose Well message, and to better equip the wider primary care team to do so, whether that’s the steps we’re taking on eye care, with the emergency eye care service we have, which they don’t have across the border—it’s widely recognised as being a positive—whether that’s about making better use of pharmacy, and the roll-out of Choose Pharmacy, and the minor ailments service is an important part of that. We’re diverting more and more people not just away from GPs and from the emergency department, but to somewhere that is actually appropriate for them to receive the right care and support. And also, as we continue to roll out 111, in each of the areas where the 111 roll-out has taken place, there is a more robust primary care system in hours and out of hours as a result. It is still, as I say, about our ability to constantly keep pace. So, yes, it is something that I look at. It is something that I will look at as I will be meeting a number of the health board and local government departments with the most significant pressures within their systems to understand what is taking place earlier on within the system and how the additional moneys we’ve made available are actually addressing the very real challenges that I know that you’ve set out.