Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 22 May 2018.
Leader of the house, as members of the cross-party group on vision, we hear some pretty distressing stories of eye care patients suffering horrendous delays to their treatment, and delays to follow-up care is a major issue across Wales. Last week, I asked Welsh Government to release data around the extent of the follow-up care problem in Wales, by health board, as these figures are not reported publicly. The data is shocking, and shows that, of the 114,000 patients waiting for a follow-up appointment in Wales at the end of March this year, 54,000 of them have waited in excess of their clinically agreed review date. Why is that important? Well, clinical audits have shown that around 90 per cent of patients on ophthalmology follow-up lists suffer from conditions such as wet age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy—conditions which if not treated within the clinically agreed follow-up interval mean that patients are at risk of irreversible harm or blindness. The situation is scandalous and there is a clear mismatch in terms of capacity and demand within the system, a situation that has been going on for years. In light of these shocking figures, will the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services agree to bring forward a statement to this Chamber that will outline how he is going to tackle these scandalous waits for eye care patients?