7. Will the First Minister make a statement on how long people are waiting for treatment in the health service? OQ60539

Llywydd, progress is being made. Waits of more than two years have reduced by 53 per cent over the last year and are now at their lowest level since August 2021. There are further improvements in the pipeline, reflecting the commitment of staff in the NHS.

I thank the First Minister for that response, but, of course, the three-day strike by British Medical Association members in Wales will intensify the problem of waiting lists, because of the failure of Government to give a fair offer to junior doctors in terms of pay. I've spoken to a number of doctors outside this Senedd today, and yesterday in Wrexham Maelor, for example, and an increasing number are saying that they're going to follow their friends to work in Australia, New Zealand or elsewhere. When you as a Government say that you can't afford to pay more, can the NHS and Wales afford to lose more doctors?

Well, Llywydd, of course, what the Member says is true, the strikes will have an impact on the services available to patients here in Wales. But I understand, the Government understands why people feel so strongly after such a long period of austerity. 

But here we are again, Llywydd, aren't we, having heard the demand for more money to be spent on non-domestic rates, we now have more money being asked for for doctors in Wales. If we were in a position to do so, of course we want to see public servants in Wales paid properly for the work that they do, but the offer that we have made is right at the limit of the funding that we have for this purpose. I'll put the point to the Member, as I put it to his leader: you say to me I must find more money for doctors to retain them in the Welsh NHS. You tell me where that money is to come from, because there is a fixed sum of money available to us, and money would have to be taken from somewhere else to do what you suggest. Is it to come from apprentices? Is it to come from the agriculture budget? Is it come from non-domestic rates? Well, those are all things that your party wants me to spend more money on, not less. And it is just an act of irresponsibility for Members to get on their feet in this Chamber and to say to me, ‘More money for this, more money for that, more money for something else,’ and never—not once—to think that they have any responsibility to suggest where that money should come from.