Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to start by, I hope, speaking on behalf of the whole Chamber, just to say that I'm glad to see Altaf Hussain back in his place. I'm really pleased that he's had good treatment from the NHS, along with 200,000 other Welsh people per month who are receiving treatments in the NHS. I think we've got to start with that. Can we please recognise that the NHS is not broken, that 200,000 people per month, despite the pandemic, are still being seen and are getting good treatment?

I want to thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, for allowing me to respond to this debate. I published the report on planned care on 26 April. That, of course, was developed in collaboration with our clinicians, so this is not a civil-servant-created plan; this is one that's been developed with clinicians, with our NHS. And what we wanted to do was to make sure we had something that was both challenging and achievable. So, you can say, 'We're going to clear the whole backlog within a year', but it's unrealistic to think that's going to happen, and my predecessor was very clear that it's going to take the whole of this Senedd term to clear that backlog that has developed.

You know that we've promised to invest £1 billion in clearing the backlog. I'm glad to see the finance Minister's here to hear me saying that. And I guess, if we had more, we could do more, but, actually, we are restricted because of the money we get from Westminster. And let me tell you that if you put together health and care—and you've all talked about how important that relationship is today—then we're spending 4 per cent more than they are in England on health and care here in Wales. And I must say that, in terms of Plaid Cymru, this is one of our priorities, but this was not one of the priorities that you set out in the partnership agreement. So, we have to deal with the money that we have here.

Now, I know, through meeting our dedicated NHS staff, that despite what they've gone through over the past two years, they are up for the challenge. I've spoken to surgeons and anaesthetists who've told me of their frustrations in not being able to operate at the rates that they need to for their patients. And you're right, Rhun, you hear the Royal College of Surgeons saying, 'do this', but then you speak to the Royal College of Physicians, and they say something different. So, let's be clear that there is not a one view from the NHS in terms of how to tackle this backlog. And it is absolutely clear that the pandemic has had a massive impact on our health and care services. It's stretched the NHS to its limit and, prior to the pandemic, in 2019, we had no more than 9,000 people waiting for 36 weeks for treatment.

North Wales—lots of you talked about north Wales—it needs some attention, and I'm giving it lots of attention. I can assure you that I've been to the north Wales health board more than any other health board, but, actually, can we start to talk up what's good about north Wales as well? Cancer treatments are better than anywhere else in Wales. Now, we're not hitting the targets and we've got further to go, but let's give praise to all those NHS workers who are really working hard to clear that backlog. I think it's really important we're really careful about talking down Betsi all the time because, frankly, it's making it more difficult to attract and recruit people. So, can we please be sensitive in the way we talk about it? Of course you can hold me to account, of course we need to hold the health board to account, but just understand that there is a consequence to this constant criticism.