5. Will the Minister make a statement on the performance of Swansea Bay University Health Board? OAQ53744

I'm sure the Member will appreciate I can't get the performance figures for the newly created Swansea Bay University Health Board. However, for the former Abertawe Bro Morgannwg, performance continued to improve across key areas compared to the previous year, with improved performance in A&E waits, referral-to-treatment times, and diagnostic and therapy waits, and the new health board continues to see more patients within the target time for cancer compared to the previous year.

Minister, since being escalated to targeted intervention status in September 2016, Swansea bay health board, formerly, obviously, ABMU health board until recently, has made some progress in terms of its performance, as you outlined, and the work of the new leadership team has to be acknowledged. However, pressures do remain. There are challenges in delivering against the cancer pathway target across the health board, and also within planned care. Despite reductions in the number of people waiting over 36 weeks, nearly 11 per cent of patients are still waiting over 26 weeks—six months—with waiting times in some areas, such as trauma and orthopaedics, actually having worsened since September 2016, when it went into targeted intervention. This September, this health board, with its various names, will have been in targeted intervention for three years, so what further actions are you planning to ensure that services reach a level that patients in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot deserve?

I recognise the points the Member makes and, to be fair, he regularly raises performance issues of the health service in the region that he represents. I have previously said, in both a written statement and in an oral statement, that I expect the new health board to have an approvable three-year plan created within this year, and that must come on the back of not just real improvement made to date, but prospects of further improvement in the future. We've actually done better on performance over the last year, and, in making use of the additional resources we've made available, that has to continue. So you're correct that 89 per cent of people within the new health board can expect to be seen within 26 weeks. I expect to see further improvement. I expect to see the health board come out of targeted intervention and to continue to improve in each of the key areas that you have outlined.

Minister, you may remember, in the 2017-18 accountability report for ABMU, that the board were very jubilant, actually, that they'd shown an improvement inasmuch as the £36 million overspend that they'd predicted was actually only £32 million, and that that figure actually disguised a better saving because the figure included £7.4 million that was a penalty for not achieving referral-to-treatment time targets, which I don't think is anything that they should be proud of. We now have the new Swansea Bay University Health Board, with a reduced footprint. Will you be expecting some more ambition from them in terms of their financial controls, or will you be satisfied if the new board comes in again to say that overspending by fewer millions of pounds than they were expecting is a success, because those fewer millions of pounds could of course be going towards the social services and you would have been able to answer Janet Finch-Saunders's question differently?

I would say the health board were far from jubilant about the reduction in their deficit down to £32 million. It was still unacceptable, and that was made absolutely clear to them both by my officials, but also by me, here, in conversations directly with the chair, and in the appraisal I've made it very clear I expect them to continue to improve. They won't have a balanced plan for me to sign off unless they can demonstrate that they are on track to live within their means, and to do so not just in one year, but over the three-year period. That is my expectation of the organisation—to improve its performance, including its financial performance, as well as improving the quality and the timeliness of its care and treatment for the people that you and I represent.