The Choose Well Campaign

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:13 pm on 15 January 2020.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 3:13, 15 January 2020

I thank Dawn Bowden for that very important question, and I would certainly want to commend the work of the Red Cross in the hospital in Merthyr Tydfil and also thank all staff across NHS Wales and the social care sector who, as we know from the discussions we've had here this afternoon, are working under pressure to provide care to the people of Wales. So we are working very closely with all the health boards and social care service providers to ensure that they do deliver the best outcome for patients and to support the further practical work that we need to do.

The Choose Well scheme has been successful. It has succeeded in directing more people to send their queries to other places rather than turning up at the emergency departments and A&E, and we're continually monitoring what the message should be. We're also ensuring that we have a message about mental health in the Choose Well programmes, that people recognise the difficulties that people experience and the mental health problems that crop up, particularly over periods like the Christmas period, so we're also looking at that.

But we are also continuing the scheme where we get all the information about a person and ask them to pin it up somewhere, like on a fridge in their room, so that there is information available in the home for professionals when they're asked for help, in order to try to do the best for the patient and to try to keep them at home, if possible, in all circumstances.