Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 13 July 2016.
Llyr Gruffydd
Plaid Cymru
2:25,
13 July 2016
You will have received, as I have received, a letter from a former nurse who has broad clinical experience. She also was a non-executive member of the north Wales health service. In the letter she described what she saw in the Wrexham Maelor emergency department last month. She mentions in her letter a shortage of staff, a shortage of beds and the impact of that on the ability of patients to access the treatment they required in a timely manner, and to move through the system and ultimately leave hospital. In her professional opinion, she says that it’s inevitable that a continuation of that situation will lead to fatalities. That’s a very serious accusation, but would you agree that until we see more appropriate staffing levels, and until we see more beds in the system, then the likelihood of seeing an end to some of the scenes that she describes in the letter is remote?
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
