Deputy Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, Kelly Davies, said:
“I welcome today’s publication of ‘A Healthier Wales’, which sets out how the Welsh Government aims to transform the delivery of health and social care in Wales to ensure that services will be able to meet the changing needs of our population.
“Many of the proposals within the document reflect calls made by the Commissioner about how health and social care needs to change for older people, and I particularly welcome the fact that the document explicitly states that older people across Wales will be ‘valued, supported to live independently and treated with dignity and respect, with the Welsh Government, statutory partners and the third sector all playing their role to make rights real’.
“The commitment to deliver meaningful partnership working across health and social care – including the potential for joint inspections – to ensure that high quality, more integrated and outcomes-focused health and social care services can be delivered within our communities is also an important step forward.
“However, whilst the document presents a positive vision of how health and social care services will be delivered that is difficult to disagree with, much more detail is needed on how the proposals within the document will be implemented.
“It is essential that the ambition set out within the document becomes the reality for older people using health and social care services across Wales and the Commissioner’s Office will continue to scrutinise the Welsh Government as it transforms this vision for health and social care into action.”
