Maybe I should call you First Minister Pontius Pilate. 

The Welsh Conservatives do recognise that winter pressures are no longer exclusive to winter months. Poor performance is now a year-round reality and whilst there are particular issues experienced in winter, overall performance continues to decline, which in and of itself, Llywydd, must bring a ferocious level of stress and exhaustion to the front-line staff tasked with delivering services. And to them I give my heartfelt thanks. This debate is not about trying to hammer them into the floor, but to give them the support and resources they need to lift them up so that they can do the job they love; they can have the training and career they wanted; and the work-life balance that we all need for our health and our mental well-being. 

I challenge totally the notion that untold, unknown and unexplained pressures are to blame for the situation across our emergency departments. It is a fact that attendance at emergency departments has only grown by 7.4 per cent, yet in the same time period, eight-hour waits have gone up by 254 per cent. And, Welsh Government's data has come up trumps because we know that since 2013, when data collection for 12-hour performance began, the number of people waiting for 12 hours or more has gone up by a staggering 318 per cent. We know that longer waits in emergency departments are almost always associated with poor patient flow through hospitals, congestion in hospital wards and inadequate social care provision in the community. This is certainly true when we consider the number of hospital beds available. 

I think it was Andrew who might have mentioned hospital beds earlier—somebody did—and occupancy rates. Data from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine demonstrates that the correlation between bed occupancy and the ability to meet the four-hour target is strong. In short, fellow Assembly Members, it's simple: additional bed capacity would mean a significant improvement in patient waiting time. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine strongly believes that we need 226 beds. Those extra beds would achieve a safe bed occupancy of 85 per cent. So, this pressure we see on our A&Es could be alleviated by having just under 250 extra beds.

The whole-system problem that we are seeing here will be exacerbated by the desire of Welsh Government to cut and to centralise their provision of emergency care services. Please don't roll out the recent mantra that it's up to the clinicians to decide. I think, Leanne Wood, you put your case very clearly earlier on: clinicians are saying, 'Keep our emergency services', and it's health boards, Governments, the south Wales programme, the Marcus Longley report that's all about centralisation, centralisation, centralisation.

I'm going to quickly turn to the amendments because I can see my time is running out. I do despair to see the Welsh Government has done yet another 'delete all' to stifle debate. I acknowledge that the Labour and Plaid backbenchers have signed a statement concerning the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, but point 2 of the Government's amendment is the usual hand-wringing promises that health boards will ask you for your views and then do what they've always planned to do anyway. This comes after years of uncertainty for the hospital's A&E services since the publishment of the south Wales programme consultation document in 2013.

Staffing at the hospitals is hitting dangerously low levels. Not only are all major A&E units in Cwm Taf staffed well below UK-wide standards, but on Christmas Day and Boxing Day 2019, ambulances had to be diverted from the hospital to Prince Charles because of a lack of doctors. The proposals by the health board have met with significant opposition from surrounding communities. Concerns revolve around the safety of patients who will now have to travel further to receive emergency care as well as vastly increasing the pressure on other A&E departments at a time when the other hospitals serving Cwm Taf did not even reach the Welsh average four-hour waiting times in December 2019.

I will support Plaid Cymru's amendment, which highlights the importance of workforce planning throughout the country, not just in the areas traditionally easiest to staff, such as south-east Wales, because it is only right that staff shortages should never be used to justify closures and service changes.

I also agree with Neil McEvoy's very clear amendment and the amendment from the Labour backbenches, because this Welsh Labour Government must reject proposals by Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board to end 24-hour consultant-led accident and emergency services at the Royal Glamorgan. And I would go further and say that the Welsh Government must review the Marcus Longley case for change report of 2012 and the south Wales programme, both of which are no longer current, both of which set a direction of travel that may no longer suit Wales, and, to be frank, both of which seem to promote services that are ever further away from the public that the health boards, the Minister and the NHS are there to serve.

I trust that the Labour backbenchers will support our motion and that by presenting a united front across all political parties, we can send a loud and clear message to the health boards across Wales. Listen to the people: do not close, cut or downgrade our emergency departments. I commend this motion to the Chamber.