7. Will the First Minister make a statement on hospital waiting times in the Swansea Bay University Health Board area? OAQ54502

I thank the Member. At the year end 2018-19, 36-week waits in the health board had fallen by 22 percent over the year, and stood at the lowest figure since April 2014. The health Minister has made available £50 million to health boards to build on recent progress and to improve waiting times further by March 2020. The Swansea Bay UHB has received, of course, its share of that funding. 

Could I thank the First Minister for that answer? It's very helpful to understand that we have seen a reduction—and we have seen a reduction, particularly with life-threatening conditions. I remember a time when waits for heart surgery were over 12 months, and cancer also a long time, but they've come down dramatically. But as we've seen the drops in times and waits for life-threatening conditions, we've seen a rise in waits for other conditions that have an impact upon people's quality of life. I'll give you two examples. I had a constituent who I wrote to back in February asking about a gallbladder situation, and I was informed there was a 143-week waiting list for that condition. I wrote back again in the summer saying, 'Sorry, we still haven't had any progress', and the waiting time had gone up by 26 weeks to 169 weeks. So, in 26 weeks waiting, it had gone up 26 weeks. So, effectively, that patient had not moved anywhere on that waiting list because of the changes. And we're seeing things with knee operations. And as these people wait for these conditions, they may not be life-threatening, but they are life-changing and they have chronic impacts upon people. Somebody with a knee wait may have to wait two years for a bad knee, but whilst they wait for that bad knee operation, the other knee goes as a consequence of the pressure placed on it. So, we are increasing the challenges for these people and worsening their quality of life. What is the Welsh Government doing to ensure that not just the life-threatening conditions are being reduced, but that the waiting times for other conditions are also being reduced?

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.

Finally, question 8—Neil Hamilton.