Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:18 pm on 17 October 2017.
Carwyn Jones
Labour
2:18,
17 October 2017
There was a review of this, if I remember rightly, and one of the things that that came up with was that we needed one specialist unit. We’ve argued about these issues previously in the Assembly, where people have opposed moving a specialist service from one hospital to another, but the outcome is that the results are better. We saw that with colorectal surgery, when that moved from Bronglais to Cardiff. The outcomes were improved because of that move. I know it’s something that won’t receive the support of everybody, but we have to ensure that the people of north Wales have the same access to a specialist unit as everybody else. Eighty per cent of patients will still receive their treatment in Ysbyty Gwynedd, but with the more complex cases—perhaps six cases a week is the estimate currently—they will receive the treatment in a specialist hospital in order to get better outcomes.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.