Agenda and minutes

View the meeting transcript.

1.1 No apologies were received.

Note: Stage 2 proceedings on this Bill will only go ahead if the General Principles are agreed to in Plenary on 8 October 2013.

2.1 The Committee agreed the order of consideration for its Stage 2 scrutiny of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Bill.

Items 4 and 7.

3.1 The motion was agreed.

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff

Veronica Snow

4.1 The Committee discussed the work of the ministerial advisory group on unscheduled care with Baroness Finlay of Llandaff and Veronica Snow from Powys Teaching Health Board.

Ministerial scrutiny session

·         Mark Drakeford AM, Minister for Health and Social Services

·         Gwenda Thomas AM, Deputy Minister for Social Services

·         Albert Heaney, Director of Social Services

·         Kevin Flynn, Director Delivery & Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Wales  

·         Dr Grant Robinson, Clinical Lead for Unscheduled Care

5.1 The Minister for Health and Social Services and the Deputy Minister for Social Services, and their officials, responded to questions from the Committee.

5.2 The Minister agreed to:

• provide clarification of the arrangements to provide children with flu vaccinations via general practice or school, and the relevant ages when such vaccination takes place;
• provide a link to the annual report of GP practice performance against the relevant Quality Outcome Framework;
• provide further detail on the policy of offering elective treatment outside the Welsh NHS if the service does not have the capacity to deliver due to winter pressures; and
• consider undertaking a piece of work to assess the impact of delays to elective care on unscheduled care in Wales.

5.3 The Deputy Minister noted that she would provide the Committee with details of the integrated care projects underway in Wales.

5.4 The Committee agreed to write to the Minister to:

·         note that it will return to this subject during Spring/Summer 2014 in order to:

                           (i)        review progress during winter 2013/14;

                          (ii)        consider the findings of the Public Accounts Committee’s forthcoming inquiry on unscheduled care and the role of local primary care; and

                        (iii)        consider whether a wider inquiry on unscheduled care is necessary in light of points (i) and (ii).

·         request further information on how consideration will be given to providing surge capacity across the health and social care system, not hospitals alone, over the winter period; and

·         request further information on the rationale that will be adopted to distribute the additional £150 million allocated to the health and social services portfolio for the 2013-14 financial year.

6a.1 The Committee noted the letter from the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales.

7.1 The Committee discussed its forward work programme for the post-Christmas period.

7.2 The Committee agreed to undertake a short inquiry on addiction to prescription and over-the-counter medicines in new year 2014. The committee will consider a scoping paper for the inquiry at a future meeting.

7.3 The Committee agreed to invite the Chief Dental Officer to a future meeting to:

·         provide an update on the dental pilot project; and

·         explore the scope of a potential future inquiry on access to NHS dentistry.