The lack of investment in treatment for women's health conditions has resulted in cross-border agreement for treatment, but this does not always happen. Pregnant women, new mothers and those who have experienced pregnancy loss often need specialist mental health support, and, in Wales, even before the pandemic, these women have not always been well supported. Early research suggests that the need for these services has increased substantially, but it's again those who are always impacted, such as by the cost-of-living crisis, who are being affected by the lack of access now, including black, Asian and minority ethnic and poorer mothers.

We can only drive improvement to maternity care in Wales if there are enough midwives working in the NHS in every part of Wales. We must do more to retain the qualified and experienced staff we have, and we can look at staffing levels, but we have seen continuously that it's the retention of experienced staff that is the concern here, and very often it's new nurses being left in charge of wards not having that experience and so on. So, there is a matter about retaining those experienced staff as well. Whilst the Welsh Government has committed to producing a women's health plan for Wales, and we saw the discovery report being published in November 2022, we also now need to see the actions, key deliverables and measurable outcomes as a matter of urgency. After all, the future of our NHS depends on this. The health and care sector is primarily composed of women, and a women's health plan would help minimise avoidable ill health in this workforce. How can the Welsh Government improve the efficiency of its NHS if it cannot cater towards its workers?

The Welsh Government does need to take into account that mismanagement—. And we don't mean during the pandemic; this has been since devolution. It is within Welsh Labour's control in terms of health. We cannot avoid scrutiny here in Wales. As I said, if this isn't a crisis, what is? Can we be honest with those that we represent and the workforce, and then work together to improve things?