2. Will the Minister make a statement on the provision of minor injuries services in north-east Wales? OAQ55077

Yes. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has established a pan-health board group to assess the scope of minor injury services across north Wales to ensure standardisation and to reduce demand on busy emergency departments within north Wales.

Thank you, Minister. The Welsh Government's Choose Well campaign rightly urges people to only use accident and emergency departments as and when they need to. It also helps them to choose and advises them to choose other healthcare services where appropriate, such as those provided by community pharmacies, general practitioner surgeries or through minor injuries services. Llywydd, a minor injuries unit in Deeside hospital in my constituency would help my residents choose well, as would fully staffed GP surgeries open at accessible hours right across my constituency. So, Minister, will you do all in your power to make sure that the health board properly considers this request for a minor injuries unit in Deeside and also looks at improving GP provision, right across Alyn and Deeside?

Yes, I'm aware. In fact, the Member has taken the opportunity to raise this issue with me in the past and does so again, as he should do. There is current work that is already ongoing within north Wales to review minor injuries provision, as I indicated. Within the last two years, there have been about 20,000 minor injuries attendances at the Wrexham Maelor emergency department—a significant number of people going there. They've actually put in additional support, both with general practice and also advanced nurse practitioner support within Wrexham from the start of November last year. I think part of this journey is not only to understand what that means in terms of releasing pressure, but also to keep an open mind about the issues the Member is raising, whether it's Deeside or another area that is relevant, and that is being considered as part of the review. So, I'm very clear that not only is the review the right thing to do, but there also is a need to engage with local representatives, like the Member, to have an open conversation about the data and the information they've got and any potential choices they make to make this a much more accessible service for people right across the north-east of Wales.

According to Betsi Cadwaladr's website, there are, I think, five minor injury units identified, other than A&E units, across the north Wales regional constituency. Luckily for me, one of them is in Mold, but most people aren't so lucky. Of course, in accordance with Welsh Government policy, in 2013 Betsi Cadwaladr closed five others—Colwyn Bay, Ruthin, Llangollen, Flint and Chirk—despite local campaigns to retain them and despite repeated warnings that this would place extra pressure on our A&E departments and GP practices. Of course, this is exactly what's happened. So, given your comments a few moments ago, what consideration are you giving to perhaps restoring minor injury units to the communities that lost them or that are accessible to them in other communities nearby?

Well, I think I've essentially dealt with that in response to Jack Sargeant's question. In the review that is being undertaken to consider alternative locations, the challenge isn't just how many locations people may want to have, it's actually about where the need is, relatively, but also the ability to properly staff those, because if you're going to have adequate minor injuries provision on its own, you need the right number of nurses, in particular, and emergency nurse practitioners and our ability to invest in the advanced nurse practitioner workforce as well. So, it's not just about putting a pin in a map and saying, 'That's where it will be.' It is about having a proper plan to get there, with a workforce strategy to get there, and to meet the demand and need that we do recognise exist within north-east Wales. As I say, over the last two years, there have been 20,000 minor injuries attendances at Wrexham in each one of the last two calendar years.