After being challenged by the Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, the First Minister has promised discussions with WAG statisticians on NHS data that currently remains unavailable.
More than 50 written questions on the NHS – tabled by the Welsh Conservatives over the last year – have not been answered.
Nick Bourne AM said: “This is no way to run the NHS. While data on crucial areas remains unavailable we remain completely in the dark.
“I am pleased to hear the First Minister say he will be consulting with statisticians imminently, and I take this as his acknowledgement that transparency within the NHS in Wales is drastically lacking.
“We have tabled numerous requests for information, including the amount of money spent on care for dementia-related illnesses and the amount of money spent per patient on cancer care, stroke care, heart disease and multiple sclerosis.
“This is just a sample of the kinds of questions that have gone unanswered.
“In addition, a collection of data that showed huge increases in waiting lists was stopped last year. We saw waiting times for first in-patient treatment increase by 4,598 per cent between March 2009 and January 2010.
“We saw waiting times for first outpatient treatment increase by 24,758 per cent over the same period.
“Now we see nothing, because the data is no longer gathered.
“All political parties, not to mention the public, have the right to properly scrutinise all areas of the NHS. I hope the First Minister will soon make that possible.”
