4. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: Update on Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:48 pm on 5 June 2018.

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Photo of Janet Finch-Saunders Janet Finch-Saunders Conservative 4:48, 5 June 2018

Thank you. I'm just going to narrow it down now to orthopaedics, because I think it's fair to say that on record in this Chamber I've raised time and time again with you my concerns about how long people are having to wait purely for orthopaedic treatments. Only today, whilst I have been sat in this Chamber, I have received a letter from a constituent's daughter about her 85-year-old mother who has already been waiting 74 weeks for a knee replacement. Yes, get that now—an 85-year-old lady. She's been waiting 74 weeks for a knee replacement and has been told she can expect to wait some 106 weeks before she's even considered able to have that operation. This is a scandal. Now, I notice, Cabinet Secretary, that the future milestone requirement for April to September next year to provide evidence of continual, sustainable improvement on referral to treatment, with no patient waiting longer than 36 weeks for treatment, expressly excludes orthopaedics from this target. Why, when the majority of my health cases that come to me are where people can't walk, where they can't sleep, where they can't eat, where they're in terrible, terrible pain, where they're elderly, where they're young, where they're middle aged? Their quality of life is being abused, really, by your Government. So, will you tell me why, just why, have you excluded that from your targets? It's a shame.