Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 24 March 2021.
You talk about the importance of operational plans, and I agree with you that it's very important to work with all the stakeholders to draft operational plans that are really deliverable. Of course, to make those operational plans really sound, you've got to have good data and really up-to-date coherent information and I'm really pleased that your COVID-19 forward plan does recognise that and, in fact, I think you have a whole chapter on how we can improve and use our data. Therefore, will you also listen to the calls of organisations, such as the Royal College of Surgeons, who are asking for not just modelling and publishing of projections on the numbers of people who need an operation in Wales—because they say that is not clear and we're not clear how many elective surgeries and other operations were postponed or completely cancelled because of the pandemic—but also asking for you to publish monthly planned surgery activity levels for the health boards in Wales to encourage the restoration of surgical activity and ensure equity of access to surgical services for patients? In other words, holding the health boards to account on this matter.