Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:47 pm on 10 January 2018.
I do regret the tone with which Rhun ap Iorwerth approaches this very serious issue—[Interruption.] Suggesting that we are fobbing people off is a denial of the reality. A 54 per cent spike in red ambulance demand on New Year's Eve is not fobbing people off. That is a real, unplanned for—and how on earth could you possibly plan for—spike in demand. On New Year's Day, the increase in demand was 29 per cent for red ambulances. We've seen extraordinary reversals of the norm. For example, in out-of-hours care, we saw a significant spike in Cardiff and the Vale, when normally in the Christmas period—on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—you see a fall in calls for services, but this year we saw a significant rise. So, these are not pressures that you could reasonably plan for in terms of those spikes. This is a factual presentation of what is happening.
I think to try to suggest that this is because a party has run our service into the ground—. It may make great headlines for the party faithful, but actually it doesn't really get us to the point of understanding the nature of our challenges and actually being able to do something about it. I think it's my job in the Government to try and be responsible and responsive and constructive in how we do that. That's actually why, in terms of your final point about the long-term future of health and care in this country and not being prepared to do something, that is exactly what we have done. On a cross-party basis, we've instructed a panel of experts to undertake a parliamentary review of health and social care. We'll have that report within a week, and we will then discuss and have to make choices about the long-term future of the health and care system here in Wales. Far from avoiding the very real and difficult challenges, we have tried to be constructive and mature in doing so, and we will then have a real, meaningful and demanding basis, both for Government and also other political actors in this place and beyond, on which to make difficult choices for the future of health and social care here in Wales.