3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: NHS Winter Pressures

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:49 pm on 10 January 2023.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:49, 10 January 2023

Thanks very much, Natasha, because I am absolutely wedded to the idea that, if we are going to transform the way we do, in particular, care, then we're going to have to rely more on technology, and I'm very much looking forward to going to see how the Delta system works in Hywel Dda next week. So, already some of this technology is being used in our communities, and certainly, when it comes to care in future and doing care in the community, I think we've got to start by saying it's digital by default, and if you can't do it with digital then you move into other areas. So, I think it's really important. None of this stuff is cheap, none of it is easy, but I'm absolutely committed to this.

If you look at digital, then we are investing more per head compared to England. We're investing £18 per head compared to £11.50 per head in England. So, we've got the digital priorities investment fund, which is £60 million. We have a digital medicines transformation portfolio as well, and that's going to make sure that we have roll-out of transformation in relation to prescription of medicine in primary care by the summer of 2023. We've got secondary care—amazing work being done already, but that needs to be rolled out, and then we'll have a central repository for all prescriptions, so that everybody can know what's happening across the service. We have the Wales community care information system. That has been rolled out in most health boards now, and that was one of the objectives that I set for the chairs of the health boards. We have the national data resource, we have the digital maternity record, we have the Welsh nursing care record. Technology Enabled Care, TEC, Cymru give us advice on all of this. We've got the national video consultation service that we've given money to. We've got the Welsh emergency department system, we have the cancer informatics programme—the list goes on and on and on. So, we are absolutely all over this space. One of the restrictions is that everybody wants these technicians, so we are competing in a very difficult market when it comes to this, because everybody wants these digital experts, and the NHS is having to compete in that space.