Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 29 January 2019.
Wel, Llywydd, that is a very partial and unfair description of the work that emergency departments in Wales have done over this winter. It is certainly true that the number of people entering A&E departments on an emergency basis was the highest ever on record in the month of December, and, despite that, the system has been more resilient in this winter than the year before. We have seen reductions in delayed transfers of care; we have seen reductions in delays in ambulance handovers; we have seen improvements in the resilience of the system, with fewer hospitals declaring themselves to be under the greatest level of pressure.
The Member is true in picking one example where the system has been under greatest strain, and that is seeing people within the four-hour target. In fact, the majority of health boards in Wales have improved their performance there. The all-Wales figure is brought down by the fact that, in two health boards, the performance has deteriorated.
Llywydd, the median time that people who go to A&E departments in Wales in December had to wait, despite the pressures that the system is under, was two hours and 25 minutes, from the time they arrived, not to the time they were seen, but to the time that they had been seen, treated and either admitted to the hospital or discharged home. I think that is a tremendous tribute to the work that goes on by the dedicated staff who work under such pressures of numbers and conditions, and that's where I would put my focus this afternoon.