Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 11 March 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:09, 11 March 2020

Well, I think there's a broader point here about financial improvement across the health service in the last three or four years. I took a particular choice, on taking on the Cabinet role, that I would make sure that whilst we make sure the bills are paid—so that patient care is not compromised, that staff don't have to worry about whether they're going to get paid in the last two months of the year—we would highlight the reality of performance of each organisation, so rather than trying to find a new way to inject money into the system towards the year, as we were often accused of doing, we've been really upfront about the financial performance of each organisation. That greater scrutiny and accountability, and some of the very direct conversations that I have had, and that the chief executive of NHS Wales has had, I think have seen a real improvement. Even at the start of this Assembly term compared to where we are now, we are definitely moving in the right direction, but there is still more to do than I would wish there to be.

But in terms of the new treatment fund that you referenced, it's been a great success. The reason that we introduced it was because there was inconsistency across Wales when new treatments were introduced and available. They're available at different points depending on which health board you were served by, and some of the challenge is not just the consistency but the timeliness of that—it could vary significantly across Wales. They were supposed to be introduced and available within 90 days, and some health boards were not able to do that on a regular basis. 

We knew that there was a particular problem in the first year of introducing new treatments, and the ability of health boards to have new treatments come onstream during the financial year and to plan effectively for them, and that was why they were introduced in such an inconsistent way. So, the new treatment fund has levelled that out so there is now a consistent service. And rather than being over three months, people expect new treatments to be available within about two weeks. So, there's a really significant intervention with, in health terms, a modest sum of money, but a really impressive and consistent outcome. I'm very proud of the action that this Government has taken to do so.