Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 29 January 2019.
Thank you for that last remark, First Minister, because my 87-year-old constituent was placed on the emergency list for knee surgery 16 months ago, with a promise of treatment in nine months—so, nine months is an emergency, apparently—but the target for surgery is six months. She's just been told that she has another year to wait, and she's 87. Otherwise very fit at that time, she's fallen several times since then because of her knee and is now physically and mentally frail. Because of that, she is no longer able to take up the offer of being able to travel to the European Union for private surgery at a cost that is, of course, much, much lower than it is here in the UK. Now, this isn't a Brexit question; the point I'm making is, because of her wait, she's become frail, she can't take up that offer to go to the EU, and she has to pay three times as much here in Wales now, using her own and her husband's funeral funds in order to do that. At 87, you can understand why she is desperate. So, on equality grounds, should there be reimbursement of the difference between the private money she's paying here and the private money she would have been paying had she gone to the EU? The only reason she didn't go is because she was made promises by the local NHS about when she would be treated that were not met. She would have gone sooner if she'd been told how long she'd have to wait.