Baby Loss

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:16 pm on 11 October 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:16, 11 October 2022

Well, Llywydd, I'm very glad to be able to sponsor, once again, Baby Loss Awareness Week activities here in the Senedd next week. These are among the most devastating experiences that families can experience. We have discussed them on a number of occasions here on the floor of the Senedd. Some people here will remember, I think, one of the most memorable contributions in the time that I have been here, when Dr Dai Lloyd set out for us the experience of his family in losing their son, Huw, 40 minutes after he was born. It was one of the most powerful contributions I have ever heard here in the Senedd.

When you reach a time, as I have, when you have grandchildren to think about as well, then every moment is precious with them, and any thought that they might come to harm is constantly somewhere in the back of your mind. So, families who find themselves in the awful circumstances that Jayne Bryant described need all of the help that the system is able to give them, including the help that comes from paediatric pathology.

At the beginning of September, the Welsh Health Specialist Services Committee met. It has made a decision to employ an additional permanent provider for paediatric pathology. It has negotiated the use of additional capacity at Alder Hey Hospital, so that some families in north Powys and north Wales will receive their paediatric pathology services there. That will release further capacity into the Welsh system. And WHSSC is also committed to an assessment of its investment in the Cardiff service, to make sure that it is capable of meeting the needs of families in a timely way.