Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 13 July 2022.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 2:32, 13 July 2022

What I can tell you is the number of people waiting for two years actually reduced in the latest figures that came out just a few weeks ago. They reduced by 3.4 per cent. So, I think that shows that, actually, we're heading in the right direction. Obviously, we'll have more figures coming out next week, which will demonstrate to us whether that change has continued. Obviously, we've got to take account of the fact that COVID is not over, and the very fact that we still have almost 2,000 people off sick because of COVID or COVID-related issues means that, actually, the challenge is still there. And so, of course, we've got to plan. The difficulty, of course, is that if you keep on getting these waves, we're going to be knocked back. But I was actually very heartened by the fact that, for the first time, we saw those figures coming down in the last month.