Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:33 pm on 11 March 2020.
Well, reference was made to the Children, Young People and Education Committee and, of course, their 2017 report 'Perinatal mental health in Wales' noted that
'north Wales alone does not have the necessary birth rates to sustain a specialist MBU, we call on the Welsh Government to engage proactively with providers in England to discuss options for the creation of an MBU in north east Wales that could serve the populations of both sides of the border.'
The Minister accepted their recommendation that the Welsh Government engaged, as a matter of urgency, with NHS England to discuss options for the creation of a centre in north-east Wales that could serve the populations on both sides of the border, saying 'I have asked the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee to work with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to consider options in north Wales, including this recommendation.'
Well, by my reckoning, that was 28-29 months ago, when the recommendation was urgent and the Minister said that he had asked then for that work to go forward.
The Betsi Cadwaladr website's only reference to perinatal mental health talks about their mental health service as close to their homes as practicable for mother and baby, but it doesn't refer to that key mental health provision. Only last month—and I'll conclude here—BBC Wales reported that mothers in Wales are suffering due to the lack of a specialist in-patient mental health support unit two years after Welsh Government promised to develop one. Why are we still waiting to hear, and if, as you indicate—I'm sure you do indicate—that, currently, discussions with England are on hold, why can't the developing model in England continue to develop on a cross-border basis, as proposed, rather than on a singular basis, recognising a border that could negate the recommendations in this committee report?