Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 10 January 2023.
Thank you very much, First Minister. Of course, we all acknowledge the tremendous stress our NHS is currently under, but multi-year waits have been around since well before the pandemic, especially in orthopaedics. One of my constituents has been waiting for a total knee replacement since 2019. He has been waiting in agony for three and a half years, and all the local health board can tell me is that the waiting list is over four years' long and that the patient should see his GP to manage the pain. First Minister, do you agree with me that it is totally unacceptable that patients should wait that long, or that secondary care should be placing these additional burdens on an already over-stretched primary care sector? I remember raising similar questions during my first term in the Senedd, and yet, here we are nearly a decade later having the same old discussion about orthopaedics. First Minister, when will Welsh patients finally get the service they deserve?