2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 26 April 2022.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:40, 26 April 2022

Yesterday, the Deputy Minister for mental health and public health and I attended a wonderful event in the Senedd, the City Hospice Forever Flowers launch, which enables people to sponsor a sunflower to commemorate somebody who's died of cancer, and then it will be displayed in Cardiff castle in the first two weeks in August, both an uplifting idea as well as a very effective way of fundraising. One of the really excellent speakers at this event described the excellent care he and his wife got from the City Hospice and the way in which they didn't have to tell their story over and over again. In contrast, every time they had a different NHS expert involved they had to recount all the latest updates. So, just as pregnant women and, indeed, those receiving continuing care at home have their own notes with them, I wondered if we could have a statement from the health Minister as to what progress we can make on ensuring that patients have their own electronic notes, and, in the case of cancer patients in particular, enabling them to ensure that everybody knows exactly what level of treatment they're getting from different specialists so that everybody is up to date with what they're getting, rather than always asking people to recount the painful history of their treatment. 

Secondly, I just wanted to ask about the Istanbul convention on combating domestic violence. On 8 June it will be 10 years since the UK Government signed the Council of Europe Istanbul convention, but, 10 years later, we still haven't ratified it. It was 2015 when we legislated our Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act. I know that the UK Government was behind the curve in not having legislated until last year on this matter, but what now is stopping the UK Government from ratifying this very important convention? I wonder if we can have a statement to update us on what the barriers are and what the Welsh Government might be able to do to get rid of them.