1. Will the Minister make a statement on the delivery of health services in Preseli Pembrokeshire? OQ58162

Thank you. Our priority is to provide the people of Wales, including those in Preseli Pembrokeshire, with health services that deliver the best possible outcomes for patients. We will be guided by the best and most up-to-date clinical evidence and advice to deliver high-quality care that people deserve.

Thank you for that response, Minister. As you know, since March 2020, the daytime paediatric ambulatory care unit at Withybush Hospital has been relocated to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen. Children in Pembrokeshire have had to travel further for vital services in order to ensure Withybush Hospital had enough space for its COVID-19 response. Now that the pandemic is easing, I'm sure you'll agree with me that it is time to return the unit back to Withybush Hospital. Can you therefore tell us what discussions you've had, Minister, with Hywel Dda University Health Board on this specific issue, and what assurances can you provide to families in Pembrokeshire that the unit will be returned to Withybush Hospital as soon as possible, and as soon as it's safe to do so? 

I think that's the key issue, isn't it—when is it safe to do so, and how do we make sure that you can get the fastest and the best care possible at the earliest opportunity. That is an issue for Hywel Dda to determine, and of course we will take our clinical lead from them. What I do know is that alongside the rest of the pressures that we're seeing across all our accident and emergency departments, the key thing is to make sure that we can try and get a really fast service for paediatric care, and of course, if that means travelling a little further, then I think parents might consider that that might be worth continuing for the time being. I know that that was a temporary move—I'll continue those discussions with Withybush Hospital—but we are not back to normal in the NHS; I think it's really important that people understand that. COVID rates have gone down significantly, but the pressures on the NHS remain, and the important thing is that we put safety first for our patients.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the appointment of the endometriosis clinical nurse specialist in Hywel Dda. Some 163,200 women in Wales live with this debilitating and painful condition, and 19,625 of those live in the Hywel Dda area. Endometriosis is a condition that often has gone undiagnosed for many years, and it's fantastic that each health board now has a nurse specialist who will be able to improve the care for women with this particular condition. Minister, will you join me in welcoming the appointment of the endometriosis clinical nurse specialist in the Hywel Dda area, and indeed all health boards across Wales, and are you able to give any further details on how this role will help improve early diagnosis, reduce the time women wait for treatment, and also improve education, so that both clinicians and patients can recognise the signs and the symptoms as early as is possible?

Diolch yn fawr, Joyce. I share with you the need for us to put a lot more time and effort into endometriosis in terms of the NHS in Wales, and that's why I was really pleased that this has been a focus of the women's health implementation group, where we've put forward an additional £1 million to really address this issue, along with a couple of other women's issues.

You'll be aware that I'm planning to make a quality statement on women in the next few weeks, and women's health. I of course am very pleased that we have been able to see those appointments of those clinical nurse specialists. The one in Hywel Dda has been in post since May 2021, and of course there is a referral mechanism in place so that they can refer to tertiary centres in Swansea and Cardiff if there is a need for more complex procedures. The endometriosis nurses are actively spending time with patients in clinic and liaising with those multidisciplinary teams to make sure that there's a better understanding of endometriosis. I think we all need a better understanding of endometriosis; it's certainly something that I've learnt a lot more about since taking this position.

The other thing that the women's health implementation group has done is to develop a dedicated website for patients and for nurses to use, Endometriosis Cymru, and that includes 'living with' stories from Welsh people, and also a symptom tracker. I hope that will help to be a diagnosis tool both for patients and clinicians, so that we can see a speeding up of that early diagnosis and treatment for endometriosis.