Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 15 January 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:38, 15 January 2020

I make decisions every single day in this office. I've made a number of decisions about directing the future of the service, not just the overarching 10-year plan in 'A Healthier Wales' but many more, as the Member knows. I appreciate there's a sense of theatre to this, but every now and again we should try and deal with some of the more realistic elements of what we're dealing with in the service. 

When you talk about why are patients so vulnerable, we know very well why lots of our patients are more vulnerable now than in previous years. It's part of our success story of keeping people alive for longer. It's also partly about the challenge of the burden of ill health and disease that is not a part of the natural ageing process. So, the Member knows that very well.

When it comes to capacity being stripped out of the system, we haven't stripped necessarily capacity out of the system. Our challenge is our ability to increase it across the whole system to the extent that it is then properly sustainable to deliver the care that we need. And, actually, if you looked at any objective commentators about where that capacity exists, then I don't think they share the Member's analysis.

And when it comes to the task force that I have set up, you know very well who the chairs are, and I'll announce all of the members who are taking part in that in due course. I expect them to report to me to make early suggestions before the end of this winter period, so before the end of March. I expect to have the full measure of that within a period of three months or so. I have not set something up to take six to 12 months to avoid the challenge. I am interested in some advice and some challenge about how we do this across the whole system.

I think the Member has misunderstood this about just being focused on the ambulance service. It's actually about improving ambulance availability, and that requires a look at the whole system. I look forward to being able to report back on that properly to Members once that advice is available to me.