The performance, be it good or otherwise, of Betsi Cadwaladr university health board affects very directly my own constituents in Aberconwy and is currently making up a great deal of casework. It is worthy of note that, within this board, the MRSA and MSSA case rates are the lowest in Wales, and red ambulance call-out times and cancer treatment within 31 days are the second best in Wales. And, where we see good practice, we want to celebrate that and we applaud it.

However, the matters raised certainly in my contribution today will highlight the continued failings and much criticism of the Welsh Government health Secretary. Deputy Llywydd, in January of this year, I raised the issue of GP shortages in this Chamber. We've seen surgery after surgery close in Aberconwy, and yet this was an area of improvement as a means of the special measures process. In February, I raised the issue of trauma and orthopaedic waiting times. Since Government intervention, the number of patients waiting over a year for surgery has risen by 2,127 per cent to 1,782. I have constituents waiting 130 weeks—that's two and a half years—for what is considered to be urgent and vital treatment, all the while facing every day with sickening pain and real debilitation.

In March, I raised concerns over support for mental health patients. I had to do it again yesterday to the First Minister. I was distressed to learn recently that a patient requiring serious psychiatric intervention could face an unacceptable waiting time of up to 18 months. I have another case where access to mental health treatment is so bad that one of my constituents has previously attempted suicide.

Healthcare issues in north Wales that I've had to raise constantly, month after month, week after week—and yet, here we are, at the end of November 2017, and, as my colleague Angela Burns has said, 30 months after interventions by your Government and by you, as the Cabinet Secretary who's responsible for delivering good-quality healthcare across Wales. 

We see no noticeable improvement, with the board now facing the highest projected budget deficit and seriously trailing behind the rest of Wales on a number of high-level performance indicators. Next year, it will be refreshing to actually see better performance and not having to keep raising issues on behalf of my constituents—for each and every one of the 3,368 patients facing a wait of 100 weeks for elective orthopaedic surgery, for my elderly constituent who has not only faced a wait of almost three years for a colonoscopy, but whose frustration was further compounded by being forced to wait five months even for just a modest reply from the health board.

Now, I do want to highlight and commend the staff working within the health board. I actually feel very sorry for them, because they take a lot of the brunt of your failing in your performance. They're working under extreme pressures and they're performing a fantastic, often thankless, task. But I am concerned at instances of clinical staff working 24-hour shifts. Studies have shown the detrimental effects of a lack of sleep on performance and concentration, and such situations seriously harm, putting patients and our staff in danger. We saw last month the number of deaths this year caused by unintended or unexpected incidents—41. More than half of those recorded occurred within Betsi Cadwaladr university health board. Deputy Llywydd, that is 41 patients, 41 families, loved ones torn apart by loss, grief and unbearable devastation.

Cabinet Secretary, I have raised this issue so many times with you, and, on occasion, when I've raised it with the First Minister, you sit there, quite often shaking your head. At the beginning of this debate—you're not even listening now. At the beginning of this debate, you hadn't the courtesy to listen to my colleague, our opposition spokesperson. Frankly, I'm not sure how seriously you take your role. It has been unclear from the start just how the Welsh Government is managing the board under special measures, so we're calling today for you to outline with some clarity what steps you are taking to ensure the financial uncertainty at Betsi board does not undermine the delivery of services, and to publish a clear action plan for returning the health board to its normal status.

The situation as it stands is unsustainable, and is actually quite unacceptable. We look across the border and we see so much better performance. Why should there be a postcode lottery? Why should my constituents, and any other constituent living in north Wales, have to suffer poor practice and a very, very poor Cabinet health Secretary who, frankly, in my opinion, isn't on top of his job?