I thank Plaid Cymru for tabling this important debate today. At the start of a new decade, when our thoughts turn to the future, our NHS is once again beset by the problems of the past. Welsh A&E departments have just experienced their worst ever waiting times. The waiting times figures for last month show only 72 per cent spent less than four hours in A&E waiting to be treated, transferred or discharged, compared to the target of 95 per cent. These figures are significantly worse than last year and we have to reflect and ask ourselves why that is.

More patients than ever waited over 12 hours—well over 6,500—when the target is that nobody should wait that long. The ambulance service failed to meet its target for responding to immediately life-threatening calls for the second time since the target was introduced five years ago. And, despite a mild winter, our NHS has once again been stretched to breaking point. We have a situation where our NHS cannot cope with normal pressures, and, if we have to deal with an influx of patients suffering from seasonal flu, or from this emerging threat from China, I'm afraid our healthcare system will melt down. This is despite the Welsh Government allocating an extra £30 million plus an extra £10 million last week.

The solutions to our problems do not require simply putting more cash in, which is why I urge Members to reject the Government's amendment. We have to ask ourselves why, despite spending significantly more per head on health than they do in England or Scotland, our outcomes are poorer, our waiting times are longer and our access is worse. We therefore have to question how the £7.5 billion we allocate to health each year is being spent. This isn't some abstract accountancy question on budgets; this is a fundamental question about people's health. And we are seeing Welsh citizens go blind waiting for treatment, Welsh citizens unable to function because they spend their days in agony, and we see Welsh citizens die from cancer because we fail to diagnose it sooner.

Our NHS is held together by the stellar efforts of its doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals, but that can't last, and things are already at breaking point. We must ensure that the significant amount of money we are spending on health is spent effectively. We need to focus our efforts and not simply throw cash at the problems hoping they will go away—that just won't happen. We need also to invest in social care. And bedblocking remains a significant problem. One consultant at Morriston Hospital stated that he knew of 106 medically fit patients who were still in hospital because there was simply no care package available. And yet, at the same time, here we are cancelling operations, leaving people in pain, potentially hampering their recovery and increasing the cost of treatment.