Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 12 February 2020.
Well, the decision made about the future of the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, which we'll be debating later on today, is one where the health board have a responsibility to make a choice. They do need to listen to and engage with their medical workforce to understand what doctors are saying about the safety of that service. That's a short-term challenge and a longer term one. But they also of course have a responsibility to listen to the public. And that's not just about the numbers of people who are engaged and genuinely anxious about the future of services. They've got to be able to listen to those concerns, those fears—because, actually, the health board themselves may not know everything about the direct impact upon the communities they serve, the challenges about access, about equity—and to be able to listen to what the public are saying and to respond to that in providing any answer for the future. And of course I expect not just members of the public, but their elected representatives too, to ask those questions. And I expect those questions to be answered, in a way that is genuinely open and transparent, about any choice the health board make in providing the sort of high-quality and safe service that people in every part of Wales are entitled to expect.