Written question WQ100533
- Asked by
- Dan ThomasReform
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Minister for Health and Care
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 9 days
Question
What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of the removal of consultant-led care from the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and the closure of the special care baby unit on infant mortality and complications?
Answer
Answered by Deputy Minister for Social Care, Mental Health and Women’s Health (Delyth Jewell)
Services must be safe, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of local populations, delivered in line with professional standards and clinical guidance. This includes robust planning around demand, capacity, workforce, and financial resources to ensure services are both effective and resilient.
Health boards have a responsibility to assess the specific needs of their communities and must undertake a rigorous options appraisal and Quality Impact Assessment regarding any proposed service change and engage with its population and partners, in line with the following national guidance: How to make changes to health services: guidance for NHS organisations | GOV.WALES
Welsh Government would expect to be assured that any proposed changes met these requirements before decisions were implemented and would consider appropriate action if there was evidence that the health board had failed to follow the required process. These actions and the role of Welsh Ministers is set out in the above guidance.