4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on COVID-19

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:23 pm on 14 September 2021.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 4:23, 14 September 2021

Thanks very much, James. And I acknowledge that there is real pressure on the ambulance service at the moment, but, no, I wouldn't describe it as a crisis at the moment. I think it's really important for us to understand that the pressures are very much intense. The issue, of course—. I'm very understanding of the fact that there are 620,000 operations that need to be carried out in Wales. I'm acutely aware of that, let me tell you, as the health Minister. I know that every one of those people is an individual who, like your friend, is suffering in pain, and it's my responsibility to relieve them of that pain, and I don't want to be in a situation where you can only be relieved of that pain if you can access the private sector. That is not the place we want to be as a Government, and certainly we are determined to address this issue.

You will have heard that we have announced £240 million over this summer to address these issues, but, frankly, the biggest problem that we're confronting at the moment is the fact that there are no beds in the hospitals because we can't get them out of hospital because there is an issue within the care service. Although I wouldn't describe it as a crisis at the moment—the care service—it's coming pretty close, and therefore my attention at the moment, along with my colleague Julie Morgan, is absolutely to try and do what we can to get through this winter in relation to care. We've had a massive recruitment campaign over the past three weeks, trying to attract people to what is an incredibly rewarding job, trying to get more people into that sector, so that we can release the over 1,000 people who are in our hospitals at the moment who are ready to go home. So, we need to provide that support, and that's what we're focusing our attention on at the moment. We are having weekly meetings, as I say, with representatives of the Welsh Local Government Association and health boards to make sure that everybody understands where the responsibility lies, and the fact that this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.