Enhancing NHS Services in Islwyn

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 30 January 2024.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:21, 30 January 2024

Llywydd, can I thank other Members for the relative silence in which the question was put? It wasn't easy to follow, but I think I was able to understand the key gist of what Rhianon Passmore said.

She asked me at the end what principles guide the Welsh Government's actions in relation to the health service and, well, those are our continuing commitment to the founding principles of the health service. The new centre that I mentioned in my answer, the £19 million health and well-being centre, was in Tredegar, of course, and no more fitting place to demonstrate investment in a twenty-first century health service than in the place where the health service itself was born. So, we continue to be committed to a service that is comprehensive, universal, free at the point of use, and where access is based not on the amount of money you have in your pocket or the influence that you are able to bear, but on your clinical need. That's what guides the investments that are made by the Welsh Government.

I agree with the point that the Member made about the need for improvement at the Grange University Hospital in its emergency department, given the part it now plays in that ecology of health services in the Gwent area, but that's why the Minister has provided that additional investment. It will more than double the capacity at that emergency department and make sure that it goes on providing the service on which Rhianon Passmore's constituents rely.

Minister

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