3. Will the Minister make a statement on how health and social care providers are working together to manage hospital discharges effectively? OQ59043

Effective working across health and social care is essential in managing hospital discharges effectively. Working in partnership has been a real feature of our approach to the challenges the system is facing this winter and has resulted in an additional 595 community beds, which are aiding hospital discharge.

I'm grateful to the Minister for that response. It's certainly true to say that partnership working is a feature of the response of the Welsh Government. I'm not convinced it's a successful feature, I have to say. There's almost the equivalent of a whole hospital full of patients in the Aneurin Bevan health board area who, at any time, are able to be discharged into the community, but we're not able to do so. My feeling is that, all too often, we are putting enormous pressures on members of staff and service leaders to work around structures that are created, rather than to create structures that provide coherence in the delivery of services.

It appears to me, and I've been sitting here for perhaps too many years now, but, it appears to me—[Interruption.] [Laughter.] I'll carry on. It appears to me that it is time to bring these services together to create a single, coherent social care organisation that is able to deliver the care that people need and is able to support our professionals in the way they're delivering their job. Is it too late to recognise, Minister, that the number of boards and partnerships and other structures we've put in place simply are not delivering the care that people have the right to and deserve?

I thank the Member for that question. I'd like to emphasise how closely the Minister and I have been working to bring health and social care together. We have fortnightly meetings—the care action committee—where we drive developments that are jointly between health and social care, and that has resulted in 595 community beds, which are created by the local authorities, by the health boards, by them putting funding in—pooling funding. These 595 beds have had a really tremendous effect in enabling people to be discharged from hospital. In terms of where we go with social care, I think you know that we have a commitment to a national care service. We are taking the first steps in doing that in creating a national office, which we hope will be up now within the next year, and we're also having a national framework. Those are the first steps towards creating a national care service, which I agree is urgently needed. 

Minister, the fact that we don’t always have a smooth transition between healthcare and social care has placed our NHS under a tremendous burden. Nowhere is this more evident than in end-of-life care. At the cross-party group on hospices and palliative care last week, we heard that accessing out-of-hours services was diabolical. A carer took over 20 hours to get through to the 111 service during a weekend just to discuss medication. It is little wonder, therefore, that one in every 14 patients attending A&E is an end-of-life patient. Minister, what steps is your Government taking to improve end-of-life services in the community, so that patients, carers and care homes are not forced to access acute health services?

I thank Altaf Hussain for that very important question. It is, of course, vital that people needing to access end-of-life services are not put in the position where they are desperately trying to get information, particularly over a weekend. I’m aware of those sorts of situations, which I have experienced. A programme should be set up so that people, over weekends, for example, who are receiving end-of-life care—that there is specific cover for those periods. I know that that is done in many cases. People should not be left in that position. The Welsh Government does, as you know, put funding towards hospices and help in the community, a particular percentage. The voluntary sector provides a lot of money as well, and those services are very impressive services. I’m well aware of the services provided in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, for example, for end-of-life care at home. But obviously, I think, we must always do more to strive to improve that situation.

Question 4 [OQ59028] has been withdrawn.