3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:08 pm on 7 January 2020.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 3:08, 7 January 2020

Trefnydd, can I please ask for a statement from the Minister for Health and Social Services on the delivery by health boards of elective surgery over winter months? Not just elective surgery, but actually an update on how they're managing winter pressures. It's not just Hywel Dda, we've got pressures at Betsi and we've got pressures in Cwm Taf. And I think we have to say—because we're here every single year—there've been endless committee reports by the Health and Social Care Committee. We acknowledge there's an extra £30 million that has gone into winter preparedness planning, but it's obviously not getting to the front line, and the issue's either poor workforce management or the delayed transfers of care of people who shouldn't be in hospital being able to go back into their homes with support, and therefore ensure that hospital beds are available.

So, I think we need to have a debate on this, because we need to discuss things like: should there have been that £30 million actually just given straight into social care? Would that deployment of that money have been better, and therefore freed up our hospitals as a consequence of sorting out some of the backlog that we have in getting people appropriate social care? So I'm basically just asking for a really serious update, because the First Minister rightfully made the point in response to my question that front-line staff work their socks off, and it must be so dispiriting, because it's not just this winter—it was last winter, it was the winter before, in fact I think we've discussed this almost every winter since I've become an AM.