3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 19 November 2019.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 2:40, 19 November 2019

Trefnydd, I have two issues that I'd like to bring before you today. I note, from the written statement from Vaughan Gething, the Minister for Health and Social Services, issued today, that he intends to issue a further statement on the governance arrangements in Cwm Taf health board and on the maternity services early next year. I would urge the Government to turn this into a proper debate. We have not had the real opportunity to debate the never-ending saga of the issues that are happening at Cwm Taf. This is like a piece of tumbleweed: as it spins along the plain, it gets bigger and bigger and sucks in more and more, and the Assembly Members here have the right to discuss this and to discuss this in Government time.

And just to put this in context, may I remind you that, in 2018, only last year, we had a consultant midwife on secondment who wrote a report that was ignored. We had a substantial report from the Human Tissue Authority that raised massive concerns over the storage and use of tissue within that health board. The Wales Audit Office last year reported on quality and governance arrangements. This year, we had the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives issuing a report. We also have, of course, the report that's come out today and, on top of that, there are five separate reports being assessed and currently analysed ongoing in Cwm Taf, including the independent maternity services oversight panel, one from the delivery unit, one from the Welsh Risk Pool, and there are David Jenkins's views, who's the independent adviser. I would urge the Welsh Government to actually give us the time to discuss this properly, rather than just turning it into a written statement, where we have no ability to forensically look at this and to see what needs to be done and whether or not changes are being truly made in that health board. 

The second issue I'd like to raise with you is that, in January 2018, the parliamentary review on health and social care was issued. Now, as you will recall, this was given the air cover of being a joint parliamentary review, with the Welsh Conservatives joining with Plaid Cymru and I think it was UKIP at the time, and Labour, to produce air cover and a report to talk about where health and social care services should be going on. That's going to be almost two years ago—in January of 2020, it will be two years ago. Despite this joint working that we all undertook in immensely good faith and despite the vision for health that the Government subsequently produced, we have not had any real feedback on how successfully that report is being implemented. We've had very little feedback on whether or not it's achieved some of the goals and the ambitions that we all signed up to. We've had very little feedback on how well it's going down with the public, patients and, of course, the staff. We've had very little feedback on whether the transformation that was promised is really beginning to happen. And I would also ask you, therefore, to give us the courtesy, as we all engaged in this report, to have a Government debate here so that we can actually understand, after two years, where that review has gone, how successful it's been and what else needs to be done, because I fear that it's just on a shelf quietly gathering dust.