Health issues

We were discussing health issues in the Assembly this week. One of the opposition parties wants us to have yet another re-organisation of the National Health Service. Personally, I think it's time we stopped undertaking structural change in the health service and concentrated on service delivery. Plaid Cymru wants to abolish the Local Health Boards. I have found discussions with the Rhondda Cynon Taff Local Health Board very useful. At my recent meeting with them I raised a large number of issues, including the need to keep the Penrhys Surgery open, surgery provision in the Rhondda, the planned new Ynyshir Health Centre, the E.Coli Outbreak, health promotion, and many others. Plaid Cymru would do away with it. Their health spokesperson think it's too small: I happen to think it is large enough to do the job of commissioning, and small enough to have a good understanding of local services. MY exchange with their health spokesperson took place in this debate.

I also had the opportunity to raise with the Health Minister the need for additional funding for areas of need such as the Rhondda. He assured me that the current review of the Townsend formula - which allocated additional spending on health to combat inequalities - would take full account of the level of illness in a particular area:

Leighton Andrews: I welcome the investment in capacity in the Rhondda, including that of the new Llwynypia Hospital and the new health centre plan for Ynyshir. As a former general practitioner in the Valleys, you will recognise the high prevalence of ill health that we have there and the need for continuing investment throughout the NHS, in primary care services in particular. Can you give me your commitment that local health boards in areas with high levels of ill health and poverty will continue to receive appropriate support?

Brian Gibbons: Absolutely. I recently had the opportunity to meet the chair of Rhondda Cynon Taf Local Health Board, Dr Chris Jones. I was impressed with the range of initiatives that are going on there to address the specific issue of primary care. Equally, you will know that the Townsend formula is being revisited and that work is ongoing to review its workings, which allocate resources according to illness in a local population. Therefore, we are committed to securing a fair NHS and to tackling the inverse care law, which continues to exist in too much of Wales.

The Health Minister was also able to tell us good news on waiting lists:

The number waiting more than 12 months for in-patient treatment is at its lowest since 1994when records began based on Welsh residents.