Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 27 November 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:50, 27 November 2019

Well, I've never tried to stand up and say, 'Everything is fine, look the other way.' That is just not the approach that I've taken at all. And I just don't think that an exercise in post-event justification is particularly helpful or useful in terms of taking forward our national health service.

The range of the issues that the Member raises—. She's entitled to have views that say she wants to reorganise parts of the health service. She's perfectly entitled to have those views, but in terms of trying to say that what is now required is to amend or withdraw the healthcare quality and governance Bill that the Assembly passed through Stage 1 yesterday I just don't think is the right thing at all. Because what the significance of what the Member has talked about is that this is entirely new legislation that takes us in a different direction, so in the parts on quality and candour that the Bill actually sets out—and we will go through the scrutiny of that Bill, through Stage 2, and I hope Stage 3 as well—that's a different matter entirely. And we've rehearsed before the issues around whether to have an entirely different management and registration system for managers within the national health service. I'm open-minded as to what the future could and should look like, but I'm practical about how we deliver that, and I don't think that a couple of speeches in the Chamber and a demand to change legislation is really an honest answer to how we could get there.