Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 27 November 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:54, 27 November 2019

Well, there is a range of measures that are already in place and  being introduced as part of the winter plans. Of the money that I previously announced, some of it went directly to health boards and some went to nationally directed services, and, indeed, £17 million was determined between regional partnership boards. Lots of it is about looking at the whole system. It's partly about taking pressure off the front door of an A&E unit, but it's much more than that. It is about keeping people well at home so that they don't need to go into an emergency department. It's also about getting people through and out of the hospital when it's no longer the right place for their care. And we are dealing with record demands being placed on our health service. It isn't just that October was the busiest month in terms of emergency department attendances but, for the ambulance service,  it was the busiest October ever, with the highest number of red calls ever—a growth of 35 per cent in the most serious calls to our ambulance service since the new clinical response model was introduced just four years ago. So, part of our challenge is delivering that capacity. I'll set out again in the future the measures that are already taking place and how that is helping us to try to deliver appropriate, compassionate and timely care even through the winter period.