When you look at the diagnostic and therapies waiting times as well, there's been a substantial jump in those waiting times, which have seen a spike of between 30,000 and 35,000 people between March and October. There are now 143,000 people waiting for diagnostic and therapy appointments in the Welsh NHS. And interestingly, on those sort of numbers, those numbers have grown significantly since June and July of this year. There was an actual decline in some of those numbers in the early part of the pandemic, because people weren't progressing through the health service to get those initial appointments.

So, that's the scale of the challenge we face, and that's why we've tabled the motion this afternoon, so that hopefully we can have a debate, discussion, and a sense of what the current Welsh Government are proposing to do to tackle these waiting times. It would be easy to spend the whole debate talking about numbers and percentage increases and actually just getting lost in those numbers, but it is important when we focus on the numbers that each and every one of those percentage points that I was talking about is an individual, an individual sitting on a waiting list that regrettably hasn't managed to progress through the system.

It is vital that we don't end up with a health service that ultimately just becomes a COVID service. It has to be the national health service that we treasure and love so much. And at this point, I think it is worthy for us all to pay tribute to the dedication and commitment and professionalism of the staff within our health service here in Wales, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty through the pandemic, and who themselves want to get back to the day job of treating people in the health discipline that they've trained for for so long, to achieve a community sense that the health service is delivering for every man, woman and child within the country of Wales, and that we are making progress in the waiting times.

It would be also wrong of me not to deal with the amendments that were tabled to the motion, because I had hoped that we could have got broader support for the motion that's before us, but I do welcome the point that there haven't been any 'delete all' amendments tabled this afternoon to the motion. But regrettably, we won't be able to accept amendment 1, tabled in the name of Rebecca Evans, because we do believe that point 1, which talks about the waiting times and the tenfold increase that BBC Wales highlighted, is a fact. It is a fact that there's been a tenfold increase in those waiting times, and we believe that needs to be at the front and centre of the motion.

Amendment 2, which again is tabled in the name of Rebecca Evans, seeks to delete point 4, and it is a fact that, regrettably, the health Minister did say that it would be foolish to have a plan in place to tackle the waiting list backlog. Well, as I've highlighted in the statistics that I've put in before us today, there is a desperate need for a plan to deal with the waiting times. I accept the point that we are still in the middle of the pandemic and the pandemic has many months, regrettably—even maybe years—for it to pan out, but we do need to plan and we do need to make sure that the NHS has the confidence, along with the care sector, that the centre is supporting the NHS in any part of Wales to make sure that services are turned back on and we can start to get on top of these waiting times.

It is important that we get COVID-lite hospitals up and running, and in a secure and safe environment, surgeries can ultimately progress within the Welsh NHS, and that's why we are unable to support amendment 3 that seeks to delete that point from the motion this afternoon.

And above all, then, we do believe that there does need to be a cancer recovery plan, which other parts of the United Kingdom have made available to their NHS, so that there can be a clear route for cancer services here in Wales to progress and get back on that even keel. Because one thing we do know about cancer is that timely intervention is critical—is critical—to making a successful outcome for that cancer patient, to have the right result from the treatment they received. Macmillan's own evidence and news reports, recently, have highlighted that there's been about 2,900 people walking around with cancer today because they've gone undiagnosed, and up to 2,000 people regrettably will die prematurely because they haven't been able to get the treatment and get into the system to get that diagnosis and get on top of the condition that they might be facing. That in itself requires urgent action from the health Minister, and so that's why we will not be supporting amendment 4 in the name of the Government that seeks to delete point (d) of our motion.

We will be supporting the Plaid amendment, because we do think it adds to the motion and we do welcome that analysis of 10-year waiting times and the ability to understand what we need to do going forward to enhance the capability of the NHS to get on top of the waiting times that I've highlighted in my opening remarks. But it is about commissioning more capacity; it is about looking at new ways of working; it is about getting COVID-lite hospitals into place; and it is about making greater use of community services, rather than moving people into the acute sector, where we can address the issue at the earliest possible stage by increasing the community spend of health resources here in Wales.