Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 13 June 2023.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
1:42,
13 June 2023
Well, Llywydd, first of all, let's be clear it's always been the case that, in Wales, we sometimes think it is clinically better for people to access specialist services that are provided across the border. I'm not a nationalist in the way that the Member appears to be. I think it's perfectly possible—. The Member shakes his head. His question to me was that somehow it is preferable for services to be provided in Wales than across the border, and I make the point to him that, sometimes, on a population of 3 million people, a specialist service will be better provided across our border. That has always been the case over 20 years, and, for certain specialisms, it will continue to be the case in the future. And a single eating disorder service for Wales—a single centre—would be far more geographically inconvenient for some parts of Wales than services that can be accessed more readily across the border in England. I have no objection to that because I think that is a better service for patients.
Nevertheless, the Welsh Government provided additional targeted service improvement funding of £2.5 million in the last financial year to recognise the priority of eating disorder services, and health boards have been identifying those local needs and seeing whether they aggregate into a case for a national service for some aspects of eating disorder services. So, that case is being assembled, and it will be for the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee to decide whether or not that service amounts to something that they would regard as to be funded. But the general point I return to it is where you have very particular needs, and the needs of some people with eating disorders are very particular indeed, a population of 3 million people will not support a service of that sort, and we should not feel hesitant about accessing that service elsewhere where that is in the interest of those patients.
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.