Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 11 February 2020.
I thank the First Minister for that reply, but I think most fair-minded people would say that that's a very partial answer to the question. The reality is that, in many respects, performance in the health service has got dramatically worse in the last 12 months. As far as Betsi Cadwaladr is concerned, a third of patients are now waiting over four hours for accident and emergency, compared with only 20 per cent four years ago; 22,000 patients have been left in the referral-to-treatment system over 36 weeks on recent figures, compared to only 15,000 six years ago; and there are many other failures that have regularly been shown up in this Chamber.
What's happened here is that we've normalised failure in the health service in Wales. It isn't the fault of those who work within the system; it's a failure of management and political control. Given that health consumes over half of the Welsh Government's budget, it's not just a failure of his Government that is involved here, but actually—in a growing number of people's minds—the failure of devolution itself. Is it any wonder, therefore, that 25 per cent of the people of Wales in a recent poll said that they thought that this place should be abolished? So, that, perhaps, will be his epitaph.