4. Will the Minister make a statement on accident and emergency waiting times? OAQ54897

Performance against emergency department access targets is not where we, the public or the NHS want it to be and I have made clear my expectation with health boards of the requirement for continuous improvement. We continue to work with all stakeholders to support the delivery of a whole-system improvement.

Thank you. Minister, A&E has seen a decade of decline in Wales. The percentage of patients seen within the four-hour target time has fallen from 90.9 per cent in October 2009 to 74.4 per cent in November 2019. The sirens are screeching loudest in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which has fallen from 93.7 per cent in October 2009 to 72.2 per cent last November. The reality is even worse in some hospitals, especially Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, which is now the worst performing A&E in Wales. Not once has this hospital hit the 95 per cent target. What urgent actions will you take in conjunction with the chief executive of the health board to review and reform the A&E department at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd?

Well, I don't think it's a question of a single department being the issue in question, but there is improvement work taking place on peer leadership and exchange between the three departments in north Wales. There's been outside intervention together as well over the course of not just last winter, but this winter, too. You'll also have seen the measures we've taken, for example, with the Red Cross and pharmacy intervention within each of the emergency departments as well. If you look at the—[Interruption.]

Carry on.

And if you look at the challenges that exist right across the United Kingdom—[Interruption.]

Can we allow the Minister to respond to the question, please?

If you look at the challenges right across the United Kingdom, you'll see exactly the same pressure right across the system, both in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where each system talks and does honestly reflect the challenges that it has. I think when you look at the work that I'll be able to confirm early in this year on reforming and improving emergency care, you'll see we have listened to our clinicians, we're looking at new ways to improve, and of course the statement that I've made today sets out a range of improvement actions that will take place not just at the front door, but through our whole system. So I think you can already see action that is being taken, and there'll be more that I'll announce in the next coming months.

Minister, the health board remains in special measures, so the state of affairs has developed on your watch. Every year you prepare for winter pressures, and the latest BBC headlines this morning were that, for the whole of Wales, there were 79,150 wasted hours for ambulance crews waiting outside A&E. That's the equivalent of nine years, and that was last year, for crews waiting outside A&E. That's every year, and every year you appear to get caught out. If we look at the Record for this time last year, I know that the same questions and the same answers will feature. When will we see the improvements our constituents deserve?

Well, that's exactly why, in the statement that I've issued today, I set out the work that will be done to look at ambulance availability. That's about releasing ambulances into the community, but also, as I've said, it must be about further improvements to get people through the hospital and out of a hospital as well. We have been more successful than ever at keeping people in their own homes than before.

When it comes to a new way of working in emergency care, the programme's being led Jo Mower, the national clinical lead for unscheduled care, and we've invested in that programme. She's worked with her peers in emergency departments across the country to look at what that means for those departments, but that then has to be linked in to what that means for the whole system. So, my expectation is that we don't just provide care in the here and now and have a short-term answer; we need a longer term answer as well. Because I wouldn't pretend to any Member in this place, regardless of their party, that I'm sanguine and content about the current level of performance within our A&E system—that is both for the staff who work in it and the pressure that they feel, but also for people as well. And indeed, the conversation I had with a patient in Morriston A&E reinforced that. There's great support and understanding among the public about the pressure on the system, but actually what they want is improvement, and that's exactly what I want as well.