Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 31 January 2023.
Thank you. I'd like to congratulate Cwm Taf on the winning of their award. There are a number of similar digital services available in the marketplace, and I know that health boards are working with a number of providers to understand how they can affect service delivery, and that does include a tool that's been trialled under the small business research initiative, which is hosted by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and funded by Welsh Government across three health boards and across a number of clinical specialities. We absolutely recognise the value that these digital services can offer in transforming planned care for our patients, and that, obviously, also contributes to our goal of care closer to home.
I think what is really important is that the digital tools that we do adopt are leveraged on an all-Wales basis, so that they're able to securely exchange data. I think data sharing is so important across our health services here in Wales. We don't want data to be locked away and not shared, so I think it's really important that that data is accessible, going forward. We also need to ensure that patient-facing services are accessible via a single route, and that's the NHS Wales app, otherwise there is a risk—I didn't know there was such a thing—of app fog, when you have too many applications, each for a different purpose.