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29 June 2022, Plenary

Debate on the Health and Social Care Committee Report—'Waiting well? The impact of the waiting times backlog on people in Wales'

… you for allowing me the opportunity to reply to this important debate around the 'Waiting well?' report and waiting times. I'm very pleased that we were able to accept almost all of the recommendations, 26 out … over 600 COVID patients in hospital. Luckily, there were only eight in critical care. Now, I know that waiting times are nowhere near where they should be. At the end of April, there were 707,000 open pathways …

30 November 2021, Plenary

Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on COVID-19

… the first part of what I say, Minister. You have a lot on your plate at the present time, because we know there are two significant issues here. We know that there’s this new variant and the … one hand we’ve got the issues with the NHS in terms of the worst accident and emergency waiting time, the longest ambulance waiting times, and the longest waiting times for treatment in the NHS in Wales …

16 June 2026, Plenary

Business Statement and Announcement

Ambulance waiting times I'd like a statement on, please. Emergency category 1 red ambulance response times in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board are now facing severe and over delays, as a result, of course, of something … Will the Cabinet Minister for health or yourself clarify what actions you are actually doing to reduce the waiting times? How are they working with the ambulance trust to ensure that the 45-minute target is now adhered …

29 November 2022, Plenary

Questions to the First Minister

… should point out at the start, Llywydd, that the median waiting time for somebody in an A&E department in Wales is two hours and 50 minutes, so the standard wait before you are seen and treated … people always to have the facts, and, of course, people do wait longer than that, but the standard waiting time—the median waiting time—is the one that I've just quoted to you. I'll write …

11 January 2023, Health and Social Care Committee

Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: evidence session with the Minister for Health and Social Services, the Deputy Minister for Social Services and the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing

… will also be targeting funding at the areas that have been prioritised to the NHS, so recovering waiting times, recovering CAMHS waiting times; we've also got the delivery unit review of CAMHS that we're looking … starting to make progress at a community level in terms of making sure that we can meet those waiting times, and, as I think you're also aware, the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee are currently scoping for …

7 February 2024, Plenary

Short Debate: Faster access to hearing services in Wales

… streets? The National Deaf Children's Society has found that 26 per cent of families were dissatisfied with waiting times for paediatric audiology. Now, whilst I understand that they are in the process of contacting people to discuss … waiting times, we need to see some action now. In fact, 45 per cent of families who were satisfied with waiting times still shared at least one concern for their child whilst waiting for an appointment. They include …

2 October 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Ophthalmology services

… respond to this debate and to explain how we're working with the health service to reduce waiting times and to enhance access to eye care in the community and in our hospitals. I also look forward … hospital. I want to emphasise from the outset that, although progress has been made to reduce long waiting times for eye care, there is still work to be done in order to deal with the backlog that built …

17 September 2024, Plenary

Statement by the First Minister: Government priorities

… And you've given us in Government a clear message: health and social care, particularly addressing those long waiting times for treatment, are the top priorities. There’s also a strong desire for us to make faster progress … personal experiences with the health service, but they were worried about overall pressure on the system and on waiting times. In Torfaen, young women told me that they wanted more support for mental health and women's health …

25 April 2024, Health and Social Care Committee

Pre-appointment hearing for the role of Chair of Swansea Bay University Health Board: evidence session with the Welsh Government's preferred candidate

… care services, whether it's access for acute mental health help and treatment, or whether it's the waiting times—both planned care and unscheduled care. So, I think, from my reading of the waiting times analysis that … into March, the health board has clearly made progress this year on both the 52-week out-patient waiting time, and the 104-week in-patient treatment time. So, there is progress. That's been very hard won …

2 June 2026, Plenary

Statement by the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care: Health and Care Priorities

… this by implementing an ambitious national programme to expand surgical and diagnostic hubs across Wales to reduce waiting times, improve access and increase capacity. My officials are already in the process of convening the expert independent group who … will mean we can proactively plan and develop our workforce to support our key priorities, such as reducing waiting times and a focus on cancer. I'm also keenly aware of the difficulties faced by graduates in securing …

28 June 2023, Plenary

Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services

… was contacted recently by a very concerned Vale of Clwyd resident, who informed me of a 55-hour waiting time at the A&E department at Glan Clwyd Hospital recently. And just to repeat that: 55 hours. That … managing the perennial issues at Betsi Cadwaladr health board. So, do you think that a 55-hour waiting time is acceptable, Minister—and I sincerely hope that you think they are not—and what specific arm of these …

18 May 2022, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Child and adolescent mental health

… two—were seen within this time period. In my own region in South Wales East, we see waiting times for specialist CAMHS is in a bad way, with over 14 per cent of young people waiting over four … discharged from section 136 following assessment go on to achieve adequate care and support in their community. As waiting times get longer, more and more children and young people are needing crisis support, with 30 under-18s being …

26 April 2022, Plenary

Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Planned Care Recovery Plan

… received some comments today from Cymru Versus Arthritis, worried about the targets that are in relation to cutting waiting times for most specialities, rather than all. Given how long orthopaedic waiting times are, this is one heck … get-out clause for Welsh Government: 'We'll sort waiting times except those people who are waiting the longest'. I would appreciate an undertaking to publish targets for all specialities, but recognising that the challenge is greater for …

11 June 2024, Plenary

Questions to the First Minister

… pleased that the Member has written to the health board directly about it to understand if the wait times are accurate, or, indeed, what could be done, bearing in mind the condition he describes. There is always … One is the ministerial oversight, and the Member will know that the Cabinet Secretary for health regularly scrutinises waiting time performance in health boards, and actually is a key part of driving improvement within that. The other parts …

17 May 2022, Plenary

Questions to the First Minister

… per cent increase in the staff of the Powys local health board. And he refers to waiting times, and we want to see waiting times improve right across Wales, but Powys's performance for people waiting 26 weeks … makes, I'm sure he will recognise that the board is working very hard and successfully to reduce waiting times for patients, to bring more services into the county and to be directly provided by the LHB, and …

25 October 2023, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: A&E department performance data

… This has exacerbated the bureaucratic workloads of staff without materially improving patient outcomes. In the meantime, A&E waiting times have deteriorated across every metric since the policy was introduced in 2011, even with the exclusion of breach … opposed by so many healthcare professionals and that has not led to any discernable improvement in A&E waiting times in Wales, and which was abandoned some time ago by the other nations of the UK, the Minister …

17 December 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session 5

… sitting service that they might need, or a short break that they might need. That's where the waiting times come in, because of the things that we've spoken about previously around the provision that … everything we've said about the sustainability of those support services then comes into train in terms of waiting times for respite and sitting services and short breaks, principally …

20 September 2023, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: The health budget

… get nervous because I see, on a daily basis, the issues my constituents raise with me about waiting times in accident and emergency, reports of failings in vascular services, and all the issues I speak about that … the summer recess to see for myself some of the issues in response to the ongoing complaints over waiting times and the general performance of the health board. The one thing that everyone can agree on, from every …

19 October 2022, Health and Social Care Committee

Dentistry - evidence session with Community Dental Services and Welsh Committee of Community Dentists

… those, they’ve got opportunities for general anaesthetics, and so, therefore, they've been able to reduce their waiting times. I think each of our community dental services have different waiting times for different patients. The other thing … next 18 months to be able to really see a difference and that we may be getting those waiting times down. That being said, my referrals from general dental practitioners are double what they were in 2019, and …

2 December 2021, Health and Social Care Committee

Impact of waiting times backlog on people who are waiting for diagnosis or treatment: evidence session with allied health professionals

… the physiotherapy waiting times were quite low during the middle of the pandemic, mainly because we weren't seeing that throughput of patients from orthopaedics, and so, we've seen that big rise in waiting times to above … the time they arrive into the healthcare system. So, that's obviously causing increased stress for our waiting times, and I think for the other professions as well, as patients are now probably more complex than they were …