English: I'd like to associate myself with what Angela Burns and the Minister have already said in thanking all of those who have enabled this important piece of work to be done in a timely manner, which was essential. I suppose the Minister would expect me to say that we don't want to get into the habit of legislating in a rush, but there was a particular reason why it made sense to escalate this legislative process and we on the Plaid Cymru benches have been very happy to support that and to support the idea behind this Bill, which is, of course, to make the GP profession in Wales more attractive to young doctors and, indeed, to retain people in their careers. So, we're very happy to support the legislation today. We're very glad that the Llywydd has allowed the debates to be moved on as quickly from Stage 3 to Stage 4, and we're happy to support that. When the Medical Defence Union began to raise some concerns with us, I had a bit of a sense that, perhaps, one wouldn't expect turkeys to be supporting the introduction of Christmas and that there may have been a bit of self-interest as an organisation in some of the queries that they were raising, and we did explore that with them in the committee. But I would associate myself with some of the concerns that Angela Burns has raised around the detail that will follow. The Minister may not be able to give us full answers today, and the reporting process that he set out, of course, will be helpful in that regard. I won't repeat the concerns that Angela Burns has raised about the admission of liability, because one of the strengths of our medical profession is that they are answerable in a number of ways to a number of bodies when things go wrong or when there's an allegation that things have gone wrong. And we wouldn't want to build anything into this system that would make GPs reluctant to participate honestly. On the point about the duty of candour that is going to be introduced in new legislation, it would be ridiculous, I think, if one part of the Welsh Government was telling doctors, 'You cannot admit when something has gone wrong', let's say to an inquest or to the GMC, at the same time as telling them that we expect them to be candid and that we're placing, at least on public bodies - and some of us would like to see that duty of candour placed more broadly on individuals - . So, I'm sure there's no intention for that, but it would be helpful for the Minister to assure us today that he will be able to give those reassurances, similar to the ones that have already been given to the profession in England. And the final point that I would want to make, Dirprwy Lywydd, is with regard to the nature of the report. It's extremely positive that the Minister has agreed to report annually in response to the Conservative benches' amendment, but we need to know what we're reporting upon and what we're benchmarking against. The Medical Defence Union have made some suggestions to the committee of some of those things: we might want to look at what the average cost of defending a claim is; we might want to look at the success rate of the claim handling. Now, I'm somewhat ambivalent about that because we wouldn't want to be saying that it's always the right thing for the doctor to be successfully defended, because sometimes the doctor will be at fault and should be found at fault. But I think it would be helpful - I wouldn't, again, expect the Minister to be able to tell us this today - when the process is in place and the regulations are in place, it would be good for him to share with us what the benchmarks and the report are going to be. He may or may not want to respond to the points made by the Medical Defence Union. To the committee the Minister has generously said he'll be making an annual report too. We can't successfully scrutinise that annual report unless we're clear what's being measured, where we are at the beginning of the process, and what the plan is to improve performance against certain key benchmarks. So, with that, I would join other speakers, Dirprwy Lywydd, in commending this legislation to the Assembly, thanking again my fellow committee members and members of the other committees who scrutinised this, and all the staff who have so ably, as they always do, supported us in the process.
Welsh: Hoffwn i ategu'r hyn y mae Angela Burns a'r Gweinidog eisoes wedi'i ddweud wrth ddiolch i bawb sydd wedi galluogi'r darn pwysig hwn o waith i gael ei wneud mewn modd amserol, a oedd yn hanfodol. Mae'n debyg y byddai'r Gweinidog yn disgwyl imi ddweud nad ydym yn dymuno mynd i'r arfer o ddeddfu ar frys, ond roedd rheswm arbennig pam yr oedd yn gwneud synnwyr i gyflymu'r broses ddeddfwriaethol hon ac rydym ni ar feinciau Plaid Cymru wedi bod yn fodlon iawn cefnogi hynny a chefnogi'r syniad y tu ôl i'r Bil hwn, sydd, wrth gwrs, i wneud y proffesiwn meddygon teulu yng Nghymru yn fwy atyniadol i feddygon ifanc ac, yn wir, i gadw pobl yn eu gyrfaoedd. Felly, rydym yn hapus iawn i gefnogi'r ddeddfwriaeth heddiw. Rydym yn falch iawn bod y Llywydd wedi caniatáu i'r dadleuon gael eu symud ymlaen mor gyflym o Gyfnod 3 i Gyfnod 4, ac rydym yn hapus i gefnogi hynny. Pan ddechreuodd yr Undeb Amddiffyn Meddygol godi rhai pryderon gyda ni, roedd gen i rywfaint o ymdeimlad, efallai, na fyddai rhywun yn disgwyl i dyrcwn gefnogi cyflwyno'r Nadolig ac y gallai fod rhywfaint o hunan-fudd fel sefydliad yn rhai o'r ymholiadau yr oedden nhw yn eu codi, ac fe wnaethom ni archwilio hynny gyda nhw yn y pwyllgor. Ond byddwn i yn ategu rhai o'r pryderon y mae Angela Burns wedi eu codi ynghylch y manylder a fydd yn dilyn. Efallai na fydd y Gweinidog yn gallu rhoi atebion llawn i ni heddiw, a bydd y broses adrodd a bennodd, wrth gwrs, yn ddefnyddiol yn hynny o beth. Ni fyddaf yn ailadrodd y pryderon y mae Angela Burns wedi eu codi ynghylch derbyn rhwymedigaeth, oherwydd un o gryfderau ein proffesiwn meddygol yw eu bod yn atebol mewn nifer o ffyrdd i nifer o gyrff pan fydd pethau yn mynd o chwith neu pan fydd honiad bod pethau wedi mynd o chwith. Ac ni fyddem ni'n dymuno ychwanegu unrhyw beth at y system hon a fyddai'n gwneud meddygon teulu yn gyndyn i gymryd rhan yn onest. O ran y pwynt ynghylch y ddyletswydd gonestrwydd a fydd yn cael ei chyflwyno mewn deddfwriaeth newydd, byddai'n chwerthinllyd, yn fy marn i, pe byddai un rhan o Lywodraeth Cymru yn dweud wrth feddygon, 'Ni allwch chi gyfaddef pan fydd rhywbeth wedi mynd o'i le', gadewch i ni ddweud wrth gwest neu wrth y Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol, ar yr un pryd â dweud wrthyn nhw ein bod yn disgwyl iddyn nhw fod yn onest a'n bod yn gosod, o leiaf ar gyrff cyhoeddus - a hoffai rai ohonom weld y ddyletswydd gonestrwydd yn cael ei gosod yn fwy cyffredinol ar unigolion - . Felly, rwy'n siŵr nad oes unrhyw fwriad i wneud hynny, ond byddai'n ddefnyddiol i'r Gweinidog ein sicrhau ni heddiw y bydd yn gallu rhoi'r sicrwydd hwnnw, yn debyg i'r hyn sydd eisoes wedi ei roi i'r proffesiwn yn Lloegr. Ac mae'r pwynt olaf yr hoffwn i ei wneud, Dirprwy Lywydd, yn ymwneud â natur yr adroddiad. Mae'n hynod gadarnhaol bod y Gweinidog wedi cytuno i adrodd yn flynyddol mewn ymateb i welliant meinciau'r Ceidwadwyr, ond mae angen inni wybod beth yr ydym yn adrodd arno a beth yr ydym yn meincnodi yn ei erbyn. Mae'r Undeb Amddiffyn Meddygol wedi gwneud rhai awgrymiadau i'r pwyllgor am rai o'r pethau hynny: efallai y byddem yn dymuno gweld beth yw cost amddiffyn hawliad ar gyfartaledd; efallai y byddem yn dymuno ystyried cyfradd llwyddiant y broses o ymdrin â'r hawliad. Nawr, rwyf i braidd yn amwys ynghylch hynny oherwydd ni fyddem ni eisiau dweud mai'r peth iawn bob tro yw bod y meddyg yn cael ei amddiffyn yn llwyddiannus, oherwydd weithiau bydd y meddyg ar fai a dylid ei gael ar fai. Ond rwy'n credu y byddai'n ddefnyddiol - unwaith eto, ni fyddwn i'n disgwyl i'r Gweinidog allu dweud hyn wrthym ni heddiw - pan fydd y broses wedi'i sefydlu a'r rheoliadau ar waith, byddai'n dda iddo rannu â ni beth fydd y meincnodau a'r adroddiad. Efallai yr hoffai ymateb i'r pwyntiau a wnaed gan yr Undeb Amddiffyn Meddygol neu efallai ddim. I'r Pwyllgor, mae'r Gweinidog wedi dweud yn garedig y bydd yn llunio adroddiad blynyddol hefyd. Ni allwn graffu'n llwyddiannus ar yr adroddiad blynyddol hwnnw oni bai ein bod yn glir ynghylch beth sy'n cael ei fesur, ble yr ydym ni ar ddechrau'r broses, a beth yw'r cynllun i wella perfformiad o'i gymharu â meincnodau allweddol penodol. Felly, gyda hynny, rwy'n ymuno â siaradwyr eraill, Dirprwy Lywydd, wrth gymeradwyo'r ddeddfwriaeth hon i'r Cynulliad, gan ddiolch eto i fy nghyd-Aelodau ar y pwyllgor ac aelodau'r pwyllgorau eraill a fu'n craffu ar hyn, a'r holl staff sydd wedi ein cefnogi yn y broses mewn ffordd mor fedrus, fel y byddan nhw'n ei wneud bob amser.