8. Will the First Minister provide an update on how the Welsh Government intends to clear the waiting lists for audiology services? OQ58011

Llywydd, the planned care recovery plan, published on 26 April, commits to reducing therapy waiting times to 14 weeks by spring 2024. The waiting list for the first fitting of an adult hearing aid is included in this commitment, and progress against the ambition will form part of the national recovery programme.

Thank you. First Minister, as you are no doubt aware, NHS services in Wales routinely use private GP optometry, pharmacy and dental contractors to deliver primary care, but do not use private audiology contractors to deliver NHS audiology care services, and I'm keen to understand why this is the case. Hearing difficulties affect one in six adults and, sadly, adults who do experience hearing loss have increased risk of losing cognitive function, and can develop dementia or Alzheimer's disease as their condition worsens. Correcting hearing loss with hearing aids not only improves the quality of life for individuals, but can also stop this cognitive decline, which has been shown to help prolong the health and well-being of individuals, and reduce the need for people who go into care homes or access social services.

Worryingly, NHS waiting lists for audiology services in Wales are growing. And in South Wales Central, the most recent statistics show that there are nearly 1,500 people in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area waiting for treatment, with just over 800 having waited for over 14 months. With this in mind, will this Government investigate the role that audiology contractors can play in helping to deliver NHS audiology services in Wales or, at a minimum, agree to meet with audiology specialists to discuss possible ways forward? Thank you.

Llywydd, of course I agree with what the Member said about the importance of audiology and the impact that it has on people's lives. It's a sad fact that during the pandemic, many elderly people, particularly—and audiology services are heavily used by older Welsh citizens—many of those people, because they were shielding during the pandemic, were unable to come forward for their appointments and we are now seeing them coming forward, and that inevitably does mean pressure on the system. The pressure is very unevenly distributed across boards in Wales. The Member is right to point to the growth in numbers in Cardiff and the Vale, but in Swansea bay, for example, the number of people waiting for an audiology appointment in February of this year was only nine people, and that was down from 225 people a year before. So, there are parts of Wales where real progress is being made and there are other parts of Wales where there is genuine pressure on the system.

The way in which this is best resolved, Llywydd, is by the building up of primary care capacity, so that people don't have to go to a hospital for the service that they need, because first-contact practitioner audiologists are able to provide that expert assessment closer to home and make sure that people get the treatment that they need. That service is already in place in some parts of Wales, for example, in Betsi Cadwaladr, and other health boards are undertaking pilots to build up a service of the same sort. It does mean recruiting people directly into the service, but having an audiologist as part of the primary care team, dedicated to that, able to carry out those appointments on a five-day-a-week basis, that is the way in which we think that the future of the service can best be secured.

 I thank the First Minister.