Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:18 pm on 17 March 2021.
In our discussions when we were developing the budget for 2021-22, we were very clear very early on that health had to remain a priority for the Welsh Government in terms of our investment, and that's why we've provided significant additional funding for the core health budget for the next financial year. Now, clearly there will be opportunities for a future Minister to look at prioritising in areas such as those that you've described. I've been very clear and very careful to ensure that our core funding for the NHS is able to do its day-to-day work, and is separate from our additional funding for COVID response. That really is to ensure that those things such as eating disorders, which are important parts of our response, aren't lost in our COVID response, which is clearly at the forefront of many minds at the moment. So, it's important that a future Government does have that clarity between COVID response, and the work that we just have to keep doing. That applies to the eating disorders work, but of course goes on across cancer, diabetes and all of the other important areas of spend as well.