Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:31 pm on 10 January 2023.
Thank you for your statement, Minister. I appreciate that these are challenging times, and, of course, we all thank the wonderful NHS staff who are working so tirelessly. However, Minister, seven health boards in Wales have nearly 1,800 patients medically well enough to be discharged from hospital. The Aneurin Bevan health board in my constituency have said that they have around 400 patients who could be discharged, but they are unable to. This is the second highest amount of the seven health boards. It's becoming clear that the only way that we're going to stop this crisis upon crisis is to reform and drastically improve social care in Wales.
Minister, the UK Government health secretary has announced a winter package that will allow thousands of NHS patients to be moved into care homes, to enable the release of hospital beds for emergency patients. I understand that £250 million has been allocated to upgrade these hospitals and buy beds in care homes for patients medically sound enough to be discharged. Is this something that you'll look to do in Wales? And, at the end of your statement, you were talking about prevention and you recognised that there might be increased pressures now that schools have returned. From what I understand today, from what I've heard, there are already high levels of staff and pupil absences in Bridgend schools because of contagious illnesses. How are you working with the education Minister and local authorities to perhaps adopt local authority advice for schools to ensure that pupils stay at home when they have contagious illnesses? Thank you.