Gwasanaethau Adsefydlu

Edwina Hart: I am committed to ensuring that all young Welsh patients are able to access the specialist rehabilitation services that they need.

Rhodri Morgan: I am grateful for that answer. On specialist services for young patients who have suffered a brain injury, could you confirm that Rookwood Hospital, in my constituency, does not offer those services for anyone under 16 and nor does any other hospital in Wales? When the, fortunately, small number of young patients requiring brain injury rehabilitation are offered services, it will frequently be at great expense in hospitals such as Tadworth Court in Surrey at a cost of around £250,000 a year for six months. If, therefore, as is currently the case, two patients from Wales, or from south and mid Wales, require such a service, and Health Commission Wales agrees to it, it will cost £500,000 a year. However, setting up a service in Wales would, at a deluxe level, probably cost a bit more than that at around £600,000, but a basic service could be provided for less money, for example, for £300,000 a year. Although it would obviously cost the local health board money to set up the basic service, doing it could save HCW and the NHS more money overall. What guidance would you offer on this?

Edwina Hart: Health Commission Wales, as an organisation, will not exist by 1 April 2010. We are now entering new types of arrangements that will allow the LHBs to look at specialist services commissioning together, with a small group looking at the very specialised services. Obviously, we have to take into account the numbers, which play an important part in this. We never have any objections from parents or others, if they have to travel to England to access specialist services, and especially if those are the top specialist services available. We have considered that the NHS could not provide services here because we did not seem to have the mass in terms of expertise or the necessary requirements. However, I am more than happy to take your point up in the future to look at bringing services closer to home as long as they are safe and effective.

William Graham: Following on from that, you will know that there is a complete lack of treatment or rehabilitation facilities in south-east Wales for young people with an acquired brain injury. Could you, as a matter of urgency, request proper talks with the local health board to ensure that it is at least beginning to offer these people some hope, because, as you know and as the former First Minister has commented, people with those sorts of injuries have to travel long distances for such treatment, which is distressing for them and for their families.

Edwina Hart: You have raised this issue with me before. These issues that you and Rhodri Morgan have raised today are worthy of consideration, and it is certainly something that I will ask the local health boards to consider in relation to the provision of services. As long as they are safe and effective services, we need to look to them in the future.

Janet Ryder: Cognitive behavioural therapy is sometimes offered to young people to help them recover from mental health disorders in particular. I have a case in north Wales where a constituent has been told that her condition needs to stabilise before the therapy can be offered, and yet it would appear that nothing is being offered to help her stabilise that condition. How do we break into this vicious circle? This condition could have serious consequences for her life if it is not stabilised, and yet, no help will be offered to her unless she can control it of her own volition.

1.50 p.m.