Llais Response to the Welsh Parliament Health and Social Care Committee Report on Supporting People with Chronic Conditions
As the independent body that reflects the views and represents the interests of people living in Wales and their health and social care services, we believe that health and care services should be built around the needs of people and communities, ensuring that everyone gets the right support in the right way at the right time.
We welcome the focus on person-centred care in the Health and Social Care Committee’s report on Supporting People with Chronic Conditions and strongly support the recommendations to make services more integrated, coordinated, and responsive to people’s experiences.
The report shows that for too many people, especially those with more than one long-term or chronic illness, healthcare is not working for them and services don’t always work together. This makes getting care confusing.
Through our engagement and complaints advocacy work, we repeatedly hear about:
- poor communication between GPs and hospitals, delays in treatment, and little or no mental health support when people are first diagnosed.
- struggles to see a GP, long waits for specialist appointments, and uncertainty about what happens next.
- people feeling left in the dark about their options, including where to turn for mental health support.
We strongly support the call for better prevention and earlier intervention. There aren’t enough resources focused on keeping people well, and those in poorer areas or from ethnic minority communities often face bigger barriers to care. Services need to be more proactive, offering help earlier, supporting people to manage their own health, and making better use of local community services.
The report also highlights the very important role of unpaid carers, who provide vital support to loved ones. Through our work with organisations such as Carers Wales, Voices Adfocad, and Credu, we often hear how they feel invisible in the system, struggling to access respite care, financial help, or even basic information. Carers must be recognised as key partners in care and given the support they need.
Many people with chronic conditions see many different healthcare professionals, but services aren’t always connecting, leading to delays, confusion, and in some cases, making their health worse.
We agree with the call for better access to mental health support at diagnosis and improved training for healthcare professionals to recognise and respond to mental health concerns, as people also regularly tell us how their chronic conditions can impact on their mental health.
This report makes it clear that bold, systemic changes are needed now. Llais will continue to work with Welsh Government, NHS Wales, and social care partners to call for people’s voices to help shape the services they rely on.
Without swift and decisive action, the pressure on NHS Wales will only get worse. We are calling on the Welsh Government, NHS Executive, NHS bodies and Social Care partners to work together to deliver real practical change, responding to the report recommendations, and making the principles in A Healthier Wales and the delivery of person-centred care a reality, and not just principle.