Diolch, Llywydd. According to the Welsh Government's latest statistics, in December 2020, there were 25,182 people waiting over 36 weeks for treatment, compared with 726 people waiting for the same length of time in 2019 in the Hywel Dda University Health Board area. That's a snapshot of just one area of Wales, which shows an eye-watering increase in the number of people desperately waiting for NHS treatment. And as Members have already said, behind those figures are real people living anxiously and in some cases, in severe discomfort and pain. 

Now, during that time, the COVID pandemic has meant that the focus of the NHS has been to tackle the virus and its impact on our people and communities, and we all have to accept that the pandemic has had a very real impact on our health services and their ability to carry out elective surgeries and routine treatments. That's why there were calls last year for COVID-free hospitals to be established so that some progress, at least, could be made in tackling the increasing backlog in treatments across the country. However, we're now at a point where the vaccination programme is making significant progress in Wales, with more and more people vaccinated every day, and that's why it's crucial that the Welsh Government now publish a specific recovery plan for tackling waiting times on the Welsh NHS and provide people waiting for treatment with some hope that the backlog will be tackled and that they will finally receive the treatment that they need.

I'm certainly not alone in receiving correspondence from people desperate to hear when they're likely to receive the treatment that they need, and the lack of information that they've received whilst waiting for treatment has left people frustrated and anxious. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will reflect on that and at the very least, take back to local health boards that there needs to be better communication with people waiting for treatment to explain their position and the local circumstances.

There are also very serious concerns from charities and organisations such as the Wales Cancer Network regarding the capacity of the NHS to deal with backlogs. For example, Professor Tom Crosby of the Wales Cancer Network has warned that an unprecedented tsunami of demand for cancer services is coming. Indeed, we know that more than a third of patients with suspected cancer are waiting too long to start their first definitive treatment, according to the Welsh Government's first set of suspected cancer pathway figures published recently. And those are just the cases that we know about. The pandemic has meant that many patients with suspected cancer have not presented to their GPs, and so there could be further pressure on services as we emerge from the pandemic, as more people report potential symptoms to their GPs. Therefore, for services to be developed for the future to tackle the backlog in treatments, we must also factor the unseen challenges like this, which will have an impact on the future demands on our NHS services.

As the Welsh Government develops its recovery plan for the NHS, there are several issues that it needs to consider when planning the delivery of future services. Firstly, the Welsh Government needs to ensure that the NHS's diagnostic infrastructure is sufficient to meet the future demand as well as tackling the current NHS waiting lists, and the Minister and his officials must reflect on current models of delivery, particularly as things like clinical practice and technology continue to change.

And secondly, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, I hope that the Minister and his officials are exploring ways in which we can better build resilience within the NHS so that we don't just fall back into the old ways of delivering health services. I believe that there may be scope to look at how we can use the additional capacity developed during the pandemic, such as the field hospital capacity, to help deliver services, particularly in the short and medium terms. And so, perhaps in responding to this debate, the Minister can tell us a bit more about the strategic discussions that he's having about how we deliver health services post pandemic.

So, in closing, Llywydd, it's vital that these issues are seriously considered as a recovery plan is developed for the Welsh NHS, and that a strategy is developed that balances the need to tackle the backlog and also provides enough resilience in the system to meet the challenges of the future. And I would therefore urge Members to support this Welsh Conservative motion. Diolch yn fawr.