Resuming Treatments

Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 8 July 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:36, 8 July 2020

Well, I wouldn't want to speculate on the relative challenge between different parts of the country. What I do know is that every health board is actively looking at what it will need to do to make sure it's on top of not just the numbers on the waiting list, but the clinical prioritisation of those different people who are waiting for different procedures, and how we need to safely restart more activity within the service. That's why the decision that I made and confirmed yesterday, to take steps on the debt levels of some NHS organisations, has been a significant positive factor. To be fair, it's a matter that the official spokesperson from the Welsh Conservatives had asked me to consider over a number of weeks, to make sure that in COVID planning, health boards weren't then put into a position where they'd have to reconsider making financial savings ahead of actually doing the right thing through these extraordinary circumstances. I always said that no health board would be compromised or punished for doing the right thing, and that underpins the choice that I made yesterday to help health boards to plan constructively and positively for the future and the people that they serve.