, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
So, there's a deficit in the system, which I have to cover in the MEG, so that the MEG is balanced. And then there is, as it were, a separate question of what that means for cash that health boards have access to in order to spend, which is looking at it from…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
So, the allocation I have is to balance the MEG, right?
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Yes.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
I may bring Hywel in on some of the detail of this, if I may, but the planned position, as you say, was that there would be a combined deficit across the system of £220 million. I'm tasked with delivering a balanced MEG, regardless of what the deficits are in…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Yes, two things on that. Firstly, we've made it clear, as you would expect, to the health service that we will provide the additional funding for the additional element of those negotiations for next year. So, that's where it sits from a budgeting point of…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Yes, so I'll kick off on that, if I may, then perhaps you'll want to come in. The challenge, the obvious challenge, in the system is that we have separate budgets, clearly, for health and for social care. I don't mean within the MEG; social care is really…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Yes, I don't think that that was the point that the report of the auditor general was making, in the way that you suggest. Preventative programmes are relevant to more than one disease. So, obesity is relevant to cancer, but also to diabetes and a lot of…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Yes. And the budget for—. As you say, in relation to obesity, we've maintained the budget for that at the level it's been for this year. What the committee, I think, can expect to see there is probably a rebalancing of how that is spent. All of the evidence…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Well, 'A Healthier Wales' is the overall strategy of the Government in relation to health, so I would make the argument that, in a sense, the entire budget is there to deliver 'A Healthier Wales'. I guess there might be some specifics that you could point to…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Yes, so in terms of the figures that are available, we already publish—and you will see next week—on a monthly basis waiting times overall. We've now provided that information on, I think, a more useful basis, where it breaks it down more accessibly at a…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Well, we have sought to reflect the priorities that the First Minister set out in the budget. So, for example, the women's health plan is a critical part of the First Minister's priority. So, there are two dimensions to that. There's an allocation, for…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Sure. Well, I mean, it depends, doesn't it? Much of the budget in health specifically is, essentially, delegated to local health boards. Obviously, there are some central elements, clearly—quite a number, obviously. We have a planning process, which sits, as…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
The same argument applies to revenue as well, because there's a revenue element to many of those projects. But some of it is—. You look at it from the other perspective. So, this year, we've had an increase in our capital budget, and so one of the judgments I…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Well, some of it is—. There is a range of ways in which one does that. So, for example, in the capital space, we will have identified what the interventions are that we are asking, for example, Digital Health and Care Wales, to take forward for us. We will…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Yes.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Sure. Well, there’s probably around £65 million of that which relates to new levels of investment, or new initiatives in relation to the childcare offer, workforce training, digital investments, the focus on women’s health, additional provision that we’ve…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Sure.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
Certainly, Chair. Obviously, it is a significant sum of money. There's £435 million, as you say, of resource funding, of revenue funding, and then it's also worth noting there's £175 million extra of capital funding as well. The scale of the increase is…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26
No, I'm very happy to get under way, Chair.
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times
Llywydd, we know these short-term waiting list measures will not be enough to bring the planned care system back into balance on their own. While new investment is important, we need to transform the way that we provide health and social care in the community…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times
Of the 5,000 who've been offered cataract appointments in the last few weeks, just over 3,200 have already accepted their appointment. A small number have been removed from the list. Llywydd, the NHS is working very hard to treat people. This includes working…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times
Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you for another opportunity to set out how the Welsh Government is helping the health service to reduce long waiting times. The First Minister and I have been entirely clear that reducing the longest waiting times is our main…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times
Formally.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
At the end of the day, it would be a clinical decision in terms of the kind of decision that the Member is asking about. In terms of context, it's hugely important for every affected individual in terms of this decision, of course it is, but for context, it's…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I have been assured that vascular services are safe in north Wales. A clinical agreement is in place for emergency and elective open aortic procedures to be undertaken in Stoke. Endovascular aneurysm repair and other procedures are delivered locally. The…
