, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
One of the things that I've been trying to promote as well—. We have people on waiting lists. They're looking for something from us there. That's an opportunity for us to have a conversation with them about, 'This is a relationship here, so we can offer you…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
You could see that, for example, during COVID—how many people were in hospital and how many people died before vaccination was rolled out. Once the vaccination programme was rolled out, you had a massive decline in the number of people who went into hospital…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
We know that GPs are under incredible strain at the moment. They see 1.5 million people a month—I think that's the figure. It is quite remarkable. And they get about eight minutes, on average, per patient. This is an intensity that you can't imagine. So, I…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I'm going to ask Heather, if you don't mind, to address this.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I think we definitely are. I think we learned a hell of a lot during the pandemic about how to reach out to those communities that were perhaps not coming forward for vaccination. We've been able to learn a lot from that: how do you do that outreach, how do…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
This was something that fell out of the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017. We're going to have these health impact assessments. They haven't actually started yet. They've been out to consultation, they are about to be introduced, and, obviously, that then will…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Thanks very much. Well, obviously what we have is a situation where we've got to get into the preventative space, so, as I've said, I've got this obesity mission that I'm trying to push on. You've already heard the fact that, actually, a huge amount of work…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I think we've got to be driven by the evidence on that, so I'd need to look at advice on how frequently they need that kind of thing. I wouldn't want to sign up to that without further evidence that it would be exactly what has worked elsewhere, for example…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Yes, I think that that cross-over does happen. It probably, again, is different in different parts of Wales, but there does need to be that cross-over. It’s absolutely essential. It's GPs who generally do that. It's that whole-person approach that is…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Which is why we've got this framework, because one of the key issues for me is that there are these pockets where it's working brilliantly, but one of the concerns, I think, was how do you make sure that there's a quality standard around it? How can GPs have…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I think one of the great things that we do is to use the third sector in this space as well. I think they do an incredible job in giving support, in particular that mental health support. When you think about cancer, a lot of people have cancer, and think…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Thank you. In a lot of our quality statements, there are sections that address the issue of the need for that person-centred approach, and, obviously, mental health becomes an important part of that. We've done a huge amount of work in relation to mental…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Well, you have to remember that a number of pilot programmes also fail, or they don't always get the results we expect. So, it's really interesting, for example, if you look inside the regional partnership boards, the idea behind them was that we would begin…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Thank you very much. Certainly, one of the things that we have now is the quality statements, where we explain what 'good' looks like. That's very important. And then, the NHS executive's role is to ensure that that's carried out. Last week, I know that Mark…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Absolutely. So, as I say, we're in the process of developing a comprehensive digital care record, but I'm going to ask Stuart, if you don't mind, to come in on this.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
We haven't got a good track record not just in Wales, but across the UK in terms of digital roll-out. I mean, they've literally wasted billions in England; we’re certainly not in the billions here in Wales. We're getting there; it takes a long time. I think…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
So, we've got a really comprehensive digital transformation programme. It's very ambitious. The key thing is that we need all of our systems to speak to each other, but we already have quite a lot in place. So, we have, for example, the Welsh clinical portal…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Of course we should. What we know is, if you look at health, about 20 per cent of it can be managed through the NHS itself, but about 80 per cent of it is due to the conditions that people live and work in. So, obviously, there is a cross-Government approach…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Yes, absolutely right. There are ways of changing people's behaviours. You can do it through contract management, and that's what we've done through the contract. We've done it not just in terms of access now, because that's made a huge difference, and the…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Great. I'm going to bring Stuart in in a second, but one of the things that HEIW have done is to make sure that they're taking steps to make sure that registrars in medical specialities are dual accredited in general internal medicine in addition to their…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Yes.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I think we have, and where we have intervened—. And when I say 'we', I mean across the UK, so we've got to be really careful, because, obviously, some of these powers we have and some of them we don't. So, when the sugar tax was introduced, it made a huge…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
The balance is shifting. So, one of the things that I've been clear with my officials—. I choose about five things that I'm going to focus on when I become health Minister, because you can't do everything. One of them is a mission approach to tackling…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Just on the AHPs, we have invested an additional £5 million to ensure that more AHPs are recruited, and that is making a huge difference. I met a number of occupational therapists yesterday who told me how much of a difference that investment has already…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Supporting people with chronic conditions: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Good. [Laughter.]
