Monday, October 1, 2007

ASSEMBLY DISCUSS KIDNEY CAMPAIGN NEEDS AND HEALTH COMMISSION WALES



Debate Wednesday 26th of September 2007 in the National Assembly of Wales (Plenary Session)


Dai Lloyd AM said "...a meeting of the Wales
cross-party kidney group was held here last
night, which many of us attended. It has
become clear that there is an urgent need to
increase the number of dialysis units in
Wales. That need has been urgent for years
now. There is also an urgent need to establish
a transplant unit at the University of Wales
Hospital in Cardiff.
That need has also
existed for years. Both of those decisions are
within the ambit of Health Commission
Wales, but nothing has happened, and people
are suffering. The Minister will be aware
of
an active kidney patients’ campaign to
highlight the urgent need to improve the
number of services available, particularly
with regard to dialysis, but we also need a
new transplant unit in UHW.
HCW has known about all of this for several
years and there appears to be no movement
whatsoever. No-one is pretending that the
commissioning of specialised services is
simple or straightforward, particularly within
funding constraints, but we need to see and
feel that there is ability and that specialised
services are being developed, and that HCW
is not always responding to a situation where
it has to save money, or it feels that it has to
respond to some sort of funding crisis. It is
there to serve patients, and kidney patients in
particular need to see movement on dialysis
and on transplants.

...In conclusion, I hope that the review into
Health Commission Wales can move the
situation forward with regard to service
provision for specialist services for the
people of Wales. At the moment, kidney
patients
, the morbidly obese, and various
other specialties are suffering because of a
lack of provision; that certainly needs to be
addressed."

In Response:
Minister for Health Edwina Hart AM
:
"The issues that you have
raised are what influenced my decision to
have a review of Health Commission Wales.
Some of the issues around obesity services
and anorexia—on which I know many
Members have had correspondence with
regard to provision and the need for
services—across Wales have been
particularly important, as have those relating
to kidney services. When you think about
what can be done these days through dialysis
and how you need ease of access to dialysis,
that is certainly an important area to look at.

However, you are quite right—if this is the
commission of specialist services it has to be
about the commissioning of specialist
services, that is, how they can work properly
across Wales in rural and urban areas, and
ease of access for patients.
Those should be
the criteria by which the commission deals
with it.
....However, I take on board your points, Dai,
and some of those key areas certainly
influenced my decision to have a review.
Presiding Officer, in light of the interest in
my statement and the review of Health
Commission Wales, I might have a look
again at my terms of reference to see whether
I can beef them up a little to take into account
Members’ views today."

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