00:00We're back at the Senate where Deputy First Minister Hugh Arranca-Davis is filling in for the First Minister Alina Edmorgan for this session.
00:09It's the first session we've had since Plaid Cymru won the recent by-election in Caffili, and we'll soon hear the full details of a draft budget which is being published by the Welsh Government.
00:19In the meantime though, Welsh Conservative leader Darren Miller is questioning the Deputy FM about the NHS. He says it's failing and staff across the country deserve an apology from how difficult their jobs have become under Welsh Labour.
00:32Will you say sorry to the patients and the staff that you're letting down? 26 years they've had Labour health ministers and for 26 years we've seen nothing but decline in our National Health Service.
00:43And of course your Government has not been the only people responsible for this. The Labour Party has been propped up by Plaid and the Liberal Democrats too.
00:52The reality is, Deputy First Minister, that the Welsh NHS is broken. Patients are waiting longer for treatment, longer for tests, longer for ambulances and longer in our emergency departments than elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
01:05When will the Welsh Government do the right thing and declare the health emergency that needs to be declared so that we can get to grips with these things once and for all?
01:15Well, there we have it. There we have it. The quote of this session from the Leader of the Opposition, the Welsh NHS is broken.
01:28From the party that never wanted to see the establishment of the NHS, they are now telling us the NHS is broken.
01:35From the party that would be happy to dismember the NHS, the Welsh NHS, he says, is broken. It is not broken. It is under immense pressure.
01:45Of course, Plaid Cymru took their chance to offer maybe a hint of braggadocio about their recent by-election win.
01:52Leader Srinap-Yorworth says that voters in Kefili saw through Labour's campaign and saw Plaid Cymru as the only party able to go toe-to-toe with Reform UK.
02:01And Labour members now fall over themselves to say that they had known for weeks that they weren't even in the race, but they were happy to go along with a disingenuous campaign which could have opened the door to the populist right.
02:13And I think they should reflect on that. Of course, in the aftermath of that result, Labour say they are listening to the public, but they've had 26 years to listen.
02:25It's action that people want and now they are tired of waiting.
02:29So with the First Minister saying that she thinks there are, and I quote, serious lessons for us to learn here at all levels of government,
02:36will the Deputy First Minister tell us what now, in policy terms, will change?
02:42I can happily respond to what will change, but also what has changed over the last year.
02:49We've had an extra 1.5 billion reen in Welsh public services in the 2025-26 budget.
02:55We brought down NHS weights significantly, but there's more to do.
02:58There's more to do.
Comments