The NHS in South Wales East

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:19 pm on 3 December 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:19, 3 December 2019

I do know in general—I'm trying to be as helpful as I can to the Member in her question—that the Minister has reformed the way in which ophthalmology services are provided in Wales to make sure that follow-up appointments are treated just as first appointments would have been in the previous system, because we know that 90 per cent of follow-up patients are likely to need the sort of ongoing care to which Delyth Jewell referred in the individual case that she has identified this afternoon. 

It is very important that we make maximum use of the very skilled individuals who we have practising ophthalmology in the community. We have an underused resource. We've known this for a number of years—that people are sent to hospital for appointments when those conditions could just as equally clinically be attended to by our highly trained opticians who operate on the high street.

So, our policy is to maximise the use of community services, so that people who need a consultant-led service are able to get it more rapidly because they're not waiting behind people who could equally easily and more conveniently have received the care they need in the community. I'm very willing to look at the individual case to see whether those principles have been properly applied in that case, but that is the underlying approach that the Welsh Government brings to these services.