Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:17 pm on 21 January 2025.
Jeremy Miles
Labour
4:17,
21 January 2025
Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Primary care is the foundation of our NHS. This is the main point of contact with healthcare services for the Majority of us. If we need more specialist care, it acts as the gateway to those services. Today, primary care professionals are seeing more people than ever. They are providing a wider range of services, which means that more care is available for people closer to their homes, more quickly. We are investing in the skills of healthcare professionals and broadening the scope of practice in primary care. We are funding qualifications to support the delivery of new clinical pathways in optometry. We are making legislative changes to enable pharmacy technicians to deliver clinical services. We have also resolved the regulatory issue that prevented dental therapists and hygienists from providing treatment independently. These changes not only make these professions more attractive, but they also enable the workforce to deliver more services.
Dirprwy Lywydd, we have made important changes to primary care in Wales, in optometry, in pharmacy, in NHS dentistry and in GP services. Our intention is to continue to make such changes. I want to use this opportunity to update Members about the progress in each of these areas.
Optometry has undergone significant reform. Changes to the contract have expanded the scope of services available in the community. Optometrists on the high street can now manage, monitor and treat an increased number of eye conditions, providing timely care closer to home. This has reduced the demands on GPs and hospitals. More than 2,000 consultations a month are being delivered by independent prescribing optometrists in the community.
Contractual reforms are also transforming community pharmacy. I started the day today at a high-street pharmacy in Barry, and I'd like to thank Gwawr Elis Jones and the team for their welcome. An extra £9.9 million has been made available as part of the community pharmacy contractual framework this year. This represents a 24 per cent increase in the funding since 2016-17. Now 99 per cent of pharmacies provide free treatment for 28 common ailments through the common ailments service: back pain, sore throat—look online for the list.
Dirprwy Lywydd, more than 400,000 people were seen and treated last year by the service. Eight out of 10 people said that they would have gone elsewhere for help if this service wasn't available. Wales is the first part of the UK to provide a nationally commissioned community pharmacy prescribing service.
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.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
