Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. As a new decade dawned in Wales, our NHS was once again struggling with winter pressures. January 2020 was not unusual. Every winter for the past several years, our NHS ground to a halt as it struggled to cope with cold and flu season. Non-emergency treatments were curtailed as the NHS ran out of bed space once more. Welsh accident and emergency departments experienced their worst ever waiting times. Only 72 per cent of patients spent less than four hours in A&E, waiting to be treated, transferred or discharged, compared with the target of 95 per cent. These figures were significantly worse than previous years. 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 that target was introduced. So, despite a mild winter, our NHS was once again stretched to breaking point. 

Then, a new, severe, acute respiratory syndrome emerged in one of China's eastern provinces. It wasn't long before the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread around the globe, and people in Wales succumbed to COVID-19—the acute respiratory and vascular disease caused by the virus. As cases rose and our hospitals started to fill with coronavirus cases, all non-emergency treatments were once again halted. What was different this time was that screening services were also stopped. And as I've said in this Chamber many, many times, screening saves lives, and it's one of the most important services offered by the NHS. The fact that these services have only now restarted is deeply regrettable. As a survivor of cancer, I know only too well that early diagnosis is the key to survival, and without the screening services, how many cancers have now gone undetected? Some estimates have the number of people with undiagnosed cancers in Wales as high as 3,000. The Minister said last week that cancer referrals have returned to almost normal levels, but how many people have had their chances of survival diminish as a result of the intervening months? According to the director of the Wales Cancer Network, Professor Tom Crosby, as many as 2,000 people could die because of COVID-related delays in the Welsh NHS. This week, the BBC highlighted the case of one of Wales's disabled athletes, who had an MRI scan for a brain tumour delayed by two months, and sadly that individual's tumour is now inoperable. Had he received the scan on time, perhaps his fast-growing cancer could have been treated. This devastating case is far from unique, and my mailbag has been full of letters from constituents whose treatment has been postponed while the health service deals with the pandemic.

Swansea University researchers have been tracking the anonymised health records of the entire population of Wales during the pandemic. Their findings show that, in April, surgery across Wales dropped to less than a quarter of its usual output.