6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Support for palliative care during the pandemic

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:19 pm on 3 February 2021.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 4:19, 3 February 2021

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you to everyone who's taken part in this debate. As Mark Isherwood said at the beginning, it's never been so important as now to be discussing what we're discussing today.

A number of Members have referred to the hope that we will all die well, and the role of palliative services in that is absolutely critical. I think what I picked up from the debate today is that perhaps there needs to be better integration between the hospices that we're all familiar with and we understand their role, but with perhaps those district nurses, with the hospitals, as Jenny mentioned, but also the care homes, which Jenny mentioned—all these are part of the story of delivering good palliative care. And particularly with care homes, where we've seen 21 per cent of people dying, as compared to 16 per cent in previous years, there's an indication there of the strength of the role that care homes play in helping people die well. And I think that this matters more than ever before, because, as others have mentioned, we've been in very, very difficult circumstances; there's been no personal contact with those who are nearing the end of their lives. And, on top of the experiences we all have, there's this overlay of guilt that people aren't able to spend time with their loved ones as they reach the end of their lives, and an overlay of guilt that perhaps they weren't able to have them at home for those last few months of their life. And because of that, if we're talking about a new care delivery plan or a new framework, Minister—and I'm grateful to you for your comments today—then we need to be more conscious of these complex responses to grief and make sure that we're involving our nurses, our doctors, our care home workers and, of course, our bereavement services, who haven't really had much of a shout out today. 

And then finally from me—Minister, I thank you very much for the announcement you've made today about the extra money for these services before the end of the financial year. I think, actually, there was a little bit more coming in terms of consequentials from the UK Government for this period, but you mentioned other services that are involved in supporting mental health during this period, and maybe some of the money has gone towards that. I share Caroline Jones's point, really, that there's no mention particularly for grief and bereavement services in the budget, so your comments today have helped me with that. 

I suppose I'd like to finish, Dirprwy Lywydd, just by saying that this is one subject area where, really, we shouldn't have to scrutinise it particularly thoroughly with funding and delivery. This is an area where we should always assume and we should always be assured that we are getting it right. And so if I can just finish by thanking the members of those two CPGs, those two cross-party groups, who've really helped inform the debate today and made us all just think that little bit more closely about what's important to us. Thank you.