Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:27 pm on 1 December 2021.
I am grateful to the Minister. The national policy notes that patients shouldn't access medical treatment in another health board unless all local options are unable to provide that treatment. It has a real impact on communities on the borders of health boards. I'm thinking of Upper Brynamman, for example, in my constituency, where the village is split in two—Lower Brynamman is in the Swansea health board area and Upper Brynamman is in Hywel Dda—which means, of course, that the time to access Glangwili hospital from Upper Brynamman is three times as long as it would take to reach the nearest hospital in Swansea. Since the introduction of this national policy in 2018, local residents do feel that there has been a deterioration in their clinical treatment. So, isn't now the time, Minister, to review the policy in order to ensure that there is a solution that is fair to those communities that happen to be on the borders of our health boards?