5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the health service in Wales? OAQ(5)0634(FM)

Our priority for the health service throughout Wales is to provide high-quality care to Welsh patients in the right place and at the right time by continuing to protect investment, drive performance and deliver the range of commitments set out in ‘Taking Wales Forward’.

I have to be honest with you, First Minister, I stand here today not very confident of that, and I’ll tell you why: since your own Government interventions and special measures were placed on Betsi Cadwaldr university health board two years ago, 227 per cent more patients are waiting over 12 hours in A&E and 194 complaints came in last year—this is actually 30 per cent of the total of all complaints in Wales. We have a 7,000 per cent increase in patients now waiting for over 36 weeks for oral surgery, and a 5,000 per cent increase for orthopaedics and trauma.

I have repeatedly asked questions of you here, and in writing, and of your Cabinet Secretary, on behalf of many of my constituents who you are failing and who are struggling as a result—many in pain—of these failings. I’ve asked you for detail as to how you are monitoring performance outcomes as part of your special measures. Will you tell me at what point you believe that your Government interventions, at a cost already of over £10 million, have actually resulted in any material improvement? At what stage do you intend to actually pull the process of special measures, believing that your interventions have worked, that they’ve been successful, that we have a relevant and necessary—

This is going way beyond a question now. Can you—

With all due respect, you’ve allowed longer questions—

No, there is no—[Interruption.] Show some respect. Complete your question.

Right. My question is: at what point do you believe that you will withdraw special measures, believing that your interventions have helped in any way? Because I can tell you now, my constituents—

The question is over. Please reply, First Minister.

The health board is not yet ready to be moved out of special measures. I can say, for example, that the health board has virtually eliminated diagnostic waits over 8 weeks, with March 2017 being 94 per cent lower than March 2016. This is the lowest the health board has been since the standard was introduced in April 2010. Cancer performance in the health board is consistently amongst the best in Wales. March performance figures are 92.5 per cent for the 62-day target, the best performance since January 2016, and 98.6 per cent for the 31-day target. I can say that BCU has significantly improved the percentage of CAMHS referrals seen within 28 days from 18 per cent in April 2016 to 89 per cent in March 2017. The number of delayed transfers of care in Betsi Cadwaladr reduced again in April down to 90, there have been reductions in five out of six months since October 2016, and that figure is 41 per cent lower in October, and 40 per cent better than the same period last year.

That’s a real achievement, just to give you some examples, given winter pressures and year-on-year increases in demand for health and social services. If there’s one thing I can say: as I have spoken to people on the doorstep all across the north of Wales, the last thing they want is the Tories in charge and Jeremy Hunt in charge.

First Minister, a couple of months ago the Naylor report was published, and the report highlights the dire state of the NHS estates capability in England. Theresa May has indicated that she will action the report’s recommendations, which includes selling off many parts of the NHS estate in England as part of a process including a two-for-one, buy-one-get-one-free deal, if you like, to tempt private companies.

Can you assure me, First Minister, that here in Wales we will maintain the publicly owned status of our NHS estate, and not follow the route proposed by the Tories in selling off the estate to mask their gross underfunding of the NHS in England?

Well, we see in England delayed transfers of care going up, we see waiting times going up, we see the great popularity of Jeremy Hunt, of course, as the Secretary of State—he’s been mobbed in the streets, we know that. We saw the doctors’ strike that took place in England. We have no plans at all to follow what is suggested in England, namely to sell off large chunks of the NHS in order to plug a gap in funding that the Tories themselves have created.