Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 8 October 2019.
Well, the Member's account demonstrates the pressures that public services in Wales are in 10 years into austerity, with the uncertainty that Brexit places on essential staff in our public services, and when pension arrangements mean that consultants in Wales are withdrawing from activity that otherwise they would have routinely been prepared to carry out. Now, of course, we expect all patients to be seen in order of clinical priority and that routine patient care is delivered in a timely fashion, but nobody here in this Chamber should be under any illusion about the very real pressures that all our public services, including the health service, are facing and the challenges that that poses when providing care in the timely way in which we would wish to see it. As I said, Llywydd, The Swansea Bay UHB succeeded last year across the range of things that it does in reducing longer waiting times and the additional money that the health Minister has provided earlier than ever in this financial year gives them the best opportunity we can provide to go on reducing those waiting times further.