Accident And Emergency

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 4 February 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:25, 4 February 2020

Well, Llywydd, I'm happy to answer another question on this matter, and I'll try and extract the serious point that I think was there in the Member's question. The strategic direction that the Welsh Government provides to the health service in Wales is that the services that are provided must be safe, they must be of a sufficient quality, and they must be sustainable.

I agree with the Member's point that the south Wales programme has provided the surrounding context for services at the Royal Glamorgan, and I agree, if this was the point that he was making, that when the local health board come to consider the future of those services at the Royal Glamorgan they need to revisit the context six years on from the south Wales programme, to make sure that the decisions are being made with the most up-to-date information that is available to them.

But people on the ground closest to those services, expert in the clinical work that an accident and emergency department has to carry out, have to be the people who, in the end, make decisions based on the strategic direction that the Government sets for them—and that is that those services must be safe, they must be sustainable, and they must be of sufficient quality. And I hope that we will listen to what the clinicians say to us on all of that, once they have been informed by all the views that local Members from all sides of this Chamber convey to the board on behalf of the populations they represent.