Llywydd, thank you. I formally move the motion before us, tabled today in the name of the Welsh Conservatives by Darren Millar.

You will see that we ask that the Welsh Assembly

'Notes the concerns expressed by patients and clinicians across Wales regarding the performance and future of NHS emergency departments.

'Rejects proposals by Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board which could lead to an end to 24-hour consultant-led services at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital's emergency department.' and we're calling upon the Welsh Government

'to intervene to prevent any downgrading or closures of emergency departments in Wales during this Assembly.'

Now, before I start, I do want to make it clear that the numerical information within my contribution has been taken directly from StatsWales, the Nuffield Trust, the Welsh Government itself or the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. And this is an important point to make, because we must not allow the Welsh Government to be in denial over the situation we are seeing and that staff and patients are experiencing across Wales's emergency departments. Nor can we allow Labour and the Welsh Government to continue to blame austerity or finances, the Conservatives down the M4 corridor, or untold, unknown and unexplained pressures or, indeed, the statistics they don't like, because the concerns expressed by patients and clinicians are at an all-time high. 

Yesterday, I heard the First Minister repeat the mantra that the NHS satisfaction survey reported a 93 per cent satisfaction rate, but you know, Minister, and I know that this is a use of quantitative statistics at its worst, because it pays no heed to the deeper analysis required. People are grateful for the service they've got, but when you ask them how the service performed they will tell you about the waits, they will tell you about the lost records and the moving around the hospitals. And let me quote directly from some of the responses to the big NHS survey that the Welsh Conservatives are currently running across social media platforms. Here's one:

'In the main, quite  happy with my treatment with the exception of A&E where, due to understaffing, due to too much money spent of management who don't appear to understand what a hospital's supposed to do, they work their socks off despite being under-resourced'.

Or another:

'I called an ambulance for my 87-year-old unconscious relative. It took over an hour and a half to arrive. They took her to Wrexham hospital. After eight hours, they'd done nothing. Fantastic staff are working reliably. A&E waiting times are not good enough. My relative wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the doctors and nurses, but the system was appalling.'

So, of course, they are 93 per cent satisfied that their relative is still there, but the experience was horrendous. And clinicians tell us that winter 2019-20 has been difficult, with the lowest percentage of patients being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours since records began—and let me repeat that—since records began. In December 2019, only 66.4 per cent of patients were seen within four hours—sounds good? Well, let's flip that around. That's 33.6 per cent of patients who are not seen within four hours. Let me repeat that: that's one third of patients who waited longer than four hours to be seen at an A&E in Wales. 

But Members, the number of attendees in December 2019 is not a shocker. This is an average of 55,560 patients turning up to our emergency departments each month so far this winter, compared with 67,490 last winter, and 65,629 the winter before that. So, let me repeat that: fewer patients are turning up at our A&Es this winter than last year and the year before, but the performance has gone down. And given that a third of patients were not seen within four hours, then it is only logical that the number of patients waiting more than eight and 12 hours is increasing every winter—StatsWales, your information.