Eluned Morgan gets quizzed over record long NHS waiting times, and opposition members want assurances that we’ll see change before added winter pressures.
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00:00With the winter comes added pressures for the NHS. It's inevitable and by and large
00:06unavoidable that there will be additional problems, but Welsh Tory leader Andrew R.T.
00:11Davies is concerned that the NHS in Wales is already facing problems, so wants assurances
00:16from the First Minister that everything that can be done is being done.
00:20The figures are going in the wrong direction, First Minister. We're knocking on the door
00:24of deepest winter. Give some hope to our health workers and give some hope to the patients
00:29of Wales.
00:30Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we have seen the longest waiters coming down, and I can tell you in
00:34relation to the 50-day challenge, we're asking the teams to target the people who've been
00:40in hospital for the longest 25% of the time, so that's 350 people against the 1,500 or
00:48so in terms of delayed discharges. So there's your figures, and obviously we are holding
00:54the health authorities to account in relation to those kind of targets.
01:01Staffing is one of the major concerns for the NHS in Wales, and there are accusations
01:05that the Welsh Labour government are shooting themselves in the foot by cutting the number
01:09of nursing university places in Wales. But Eluned Morgan says that's simply not the case.
01:15But in what can only be described as a backward step, Welsh government has cut places on all
01:22nursing undergraduate courses for the first time in a decade.
01:26When it comes to nurse bursary, I think it is important to recognise that we have as
01:33many training places this year as were filled last year. So if you think about how many
01:41came out last year, we're putting the same number in. So you can have very ambitious
01:48targets. If you can't fill the number of people going in because they're not applying for
01:52it, then obviously that becomes a problem. So we're providing as many as were filled
01:58last year.