4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: The Health Service Procurement (Wales) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:12 pm on 14 February 2023.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 4:12, 14 February 2023

Thanks very much, Joyce. I just want to reassure you, really, that we'll be the ones who decide what it looks like in Wales. If we like what they're doing in England, we can copy it. If we don't like it, we don't have to copy it. But we've got the framework now to make those decisions. What we are talking about here is quite often highly specialised services that we can't offer in Wales, so we're not in a position, very often, to make choices; it's either there, or you don't get a service. We've got to keep an eye on what is good for the patient constantly, and that is part of what we need to do here, which is why, for example—. You represent also a border constituency. Shropdoc, the out-of-hours service, is co-commissioned with health boards in England and Powys health authority, so it would be much more difficult to do that in future, which means that the cover for the people living in those border areas out of hours would be very, very difficult to provide. It may be that in that example, there wouldn't be enough people on the Welsh side for people to tender for that service. So, it is about being practical, this, I think, and just keeping our eye on what is best for the patients, but without losing that ideological lens that I think we're all very committed to.