14/11/2013 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Our top story: The number of patients

waiting longer than nine months for hospital treatment has more than

doubled in six months. Shirley Witman's husband was in and

out of hospital towards the end of his life - could easing the burden

on A help bring down waiting lists?

Our other headlines tonight: A woman missing for 30 years - police search

the garden of the house she once lived in.

The right to buy your council house - should we look again at the policy

of the 1980s? Wales football manager Chris Coleman

signs a new contract. And the world's best rally drivers

head for North and Mid Wales as the World Rally Championship enters its

final stage. Good evening. The number of patients

waiting longer than nine months for hospital treatment has more than

doubled in six months. In September, more than 11,000 people were waiting

longer than that, up from almost 5,500 in March. Patients waiting

between 26 and 36 weeks reached an all-time high of almost 37,000.

Here's our health correspondent Owain Clarke.

This was a good and when the sun is shining, people are less likely to

suffer from accidents and birds of winter. This eases the pressure on

the NHS blood as the temperature rose, so did the number of patients

waiting too long for hospital treatment. Robert has been waiting

six months for a new me and his hospital have put a halt on

non-emergency surgery. It impairs my mobility and my whole

way of life. It is not getting any better and I am stuck using a

walking stick. I'm worried about it. What do the latest figures tell

us? Between March and the end of

September, the number of patients waiting over nine months grew by

over 6000. Welsh government target say nobody should wait that long.

The NHS was nowhere near its target of treating 95% of patients within

26 weeks. The stats also show with the performance is worth and batted

in Cardiff and two other health board areas. But there has been some

progress. At the end of the summer, the number of patients waiting

longest reduced by 11%. The Welsh government says that proves NHS

recovery plans are working but according to the Conservatives, it

is a fiasco. That is unacceptable to see that

trend is increasing and for those people to have to wait that long for

treatment and the government has to take action to ensure this isn't an

increasing trend. A health minister wasn't available

today but Welsh government has blamed waiting list on the knock-on

effect of last winter's weather, which led to an unprecedented surge

in emergency care demand. It argues this year the NHS is better prepared

but with waiting lifts having grown, the critics say there are

ominous signs with winter on its way.

Almost half of people taken to our hospitals are emergency admissions

which, as we've just heard, can put huge strain on limited resources. A

team at Swansea University is currently looking at whether a

system which identifies potential patients can ease the burden on A

Sachin Krishnan has been given exclusive access to the research.

Being rushed into hospital in the middle of the night, and often

frightening experience for patients and their families and also a

financial burden on the health service, with the average cost of a

weekly hospital bed estimated at ?2000. Here they are assessing the

value of a computer programme which identified attentional emergency

patients. The idea is those patients can be targeted earlier.

We are looking at whether it is acceptable to patients, whether they

like it and whether there is a shin of their health is improved.

Surely's husband was regularly taken to hospital before his death earlier

this year. She told me how difficult the time was not I worked in a

hospital -- how difficult the time was.

People get hooked up and they are making noises and you don't know

what they mean. It can be very frightening. I think I would like

people to avoid it. Patients and doctors at 32 this is -- 32

practices are taking part in the study but is there a danger the

workload will be moved onto the likes of GPs?

I understand that by getting actual GP feedback with regard to the fact

we haven't been able to do this because the resources haven't been

in place, it might actually give a case for actual evidence base for

future care and planning for increased resources within the

community. There are no quick answers to the

issues affecting the health service but this research is backed by many.

Around three quarters of ?1 million. The final report will be published

in two and a half years time. The Health Minister, Mark Drakeford,

faces a legal challenge over his decision to green-light changes to

the way urgent care is delivered at Llanelli's Prince Philip Hospital.

Campaigners say changing the A department into a nurse-led unit

supported by GPs, could put patients in danger. The Welsh Government says

it's aware of the proposed judicial review.

Welsh Water will introduce a below inflation price rise for its

customers next April, for the fifth year running. The company has also

announced half year profits of ?32 million. It says as it doesn't have

shareholders, the money will be pumped back into the business.

We are using that money for a large number of schemes, for example

across North Wales we have been building new order treatment works

and putting processes in place that will provide the highest quality

water for the next 20 years to come. Police investigating the

disappearance of a Cardiff woman, who was last seen more than 30 years

ago, have searched her former home and workplace. Susanne

Llewellyn-Jones, has not been seen since going to catch a train in

1980. Nick Palit reports. At the house she lived in more than 30

years ago specialist forensic teams have been carrying out a detailed

search of the back garden. Using ground penetrating radar

equipment - crime scene investigators are trying to

establish if anything's under the lawn of this surburban Cardiff home.

The current owners of the house in the Llandaff area of Cardiff have

only recently moved in but back in 1980 Susanne Llewellyn Jones lived

here with her husband. She was last seen on April 14th 1980 when her

husband drove her from their home here on Llantrisant Road to

Cardiff's Central Railway Station. Police say her disappearance was

completely out of character. Detective Chief Inspector Ceri

Hughes, from the Specialist Crime Investigations Team, says, "All

outstanding missing person cases remain open, and are revisited

periodically in case new evidence comes to light. At the time of her

disappearance Susanne Llewellyn Jones was 34 years old. Police have

issued an age-progression photograph of what she may look like now, more

than three decades on. As part of this re-investigation a specialist

unit has also been searching the nearby Churchill's Hotel where she

had worked. Marc Adams-Jones managed the hotel at the time and remembers

Susanne well. People would say, she's disappeared.

It is an argument, it is a family disagreement. She will come back.

Obviously, she hasn't and 33 years later, she is still not there. I

would like to think that she is somewhere and has started up a new

life, she is in Spain or somewhere. People have got different opinions.

A 68-year-old man from the Vale of Glamorgan was interviewed last week

in connection with her disappearance, and Police are

appealing for anyone with any information to contact them.

It was one of the policies that came to define the Thatcher era in the

eighties but the Welsh Conservatives think it's time to revive it. The

right to buy for council and social housing tenants has waned in

popularity since its heyday but reforming the scheme forms part of

the Tories' vision for Welsh housing. Our political reporter

James Williams went to the party's policy launch.

After coming to power, housing was one of Thatcher's first reforms. Her

aim was to create a nation of homeowners and right to buy when

some way to achieving that, with people jumping at the opportunity to

buy council homes. Didn't have that money to buy a house, really.

We had some money saved to do the house out but we didn't have the

money to buy a house. People weren't earning much then. But it is not as

popular as it once was. Launching a new housing policy today

in Caerphilly, the Welsh Conservatives say they want to

rejuvenate the scheme because the number of homes bought under the

policy has fallen from more than 11,000 in 1988 to a little over 400

last year. The Tories hope they can help some of the 84% of Welsh adults

who want to be homeowners. People can once again by their own

home and right to buy but unlike in the past, for each home sold, a new

home would have to be dealt. The family already in the house will

continue to live in the house but another family can be housed

elsewhere. Buying proposals are so included in the proposal.

Labour says the plans lack detail but the attacks extend beyond the

Assembly. We welcome their ambitions for

housing in terms of increasing the number of housing, social housing

and reducing the number of empty homes. We do have a problem with it

in that the nanny the policies that are being run from Westminster, the

Conservative party in Westminster is actually undermining their ambitions

in Wales. Despite lattices, the Welsh are answering previous claims

that they aren't offering answers to some of the biggest problems in

Wales. This is the latest policy document

in a series this year alone to show that the Tories can be a credible

party in government ahead of the next elections in 2016.

The Anglican and Catholic churches in Wales are calling for faith

schools to be given the same level of protection as Welsh-language

schools in the current round of council cutbacks. Some local

authorities are considering whether to withdraw funding for free

transport for faith schools. Church leaders say, the decisions will

threaten the viability of many of those schools. Here's our political

editor Nick Servini. Home time to start in informal than

700 pupils at this comp offensive in Swansea. No decision has been made

here but informal talks on the issue of free transport are being held. In

the neighbouring authority, the head of the Catholic school in Port

Talbot and a mother of two to pupils Tammy the council has already

decided to withdraw free travel and it is due to kick in next year.

There are people who could afford to pay for their own transport to faith

education and some who could make the contribution.

There are some who couldn't afford it at all. We have been told that if

you want to send your child to a faith school, you may have to pick

up the cost in Neath Port Talbot, we will have to pick up the cost of

transport whereas if a child attends a Welsh medium school, a comp

offensive, they actually get free transport.

It seems very unfair. Councils have a legal duty to provide free

transport to Welsh language schools but not faith once.

Church leaders want parity. Transport is essential to the

sustaining of education in those schools. If that line of support is

cut, a number of schools will have to look at their future.

There are around 250 faith schools in Wales and to varying degrees the

decision has already been made to cut funding in Flintshire and

Wrexham while Conway is about to go to consultation. Bridgend Council is

also due to start a public consultation next month.

We have to save millions of pounds as a result of coalition cats and it

is impossible to save ?36 million from our budget without having an

impact like this. Church leaders don't want this to be

seen as a faith against language row but it is likely that is how it will

be portrayed by many campaigners when consultations get underway in

areas like this. It is the main reason why school pupils in Wales

travel out of their catchment area. In the past, councils have been able

to fund both but it is a sign of the times of how difficult it is for

local authorities in the current climate.

Much more to come before 7:00pm. The world's best rally drivers are

in North Wales as the World Rally Championship enters its final stage.

And Wales football manager Chris Coleman signs a new contract taking

him up to Euro 2016. They're in charge of the police were

you live - Police and Crime Commissioners have been in the job

for a year. They're supposed to make the police more accountable and

ultimately, reduce crime but a survey for the BBC out today shows

over a third of us don't know we have one and more than half say

they've had no or little effect. Jordan Davies reports.

They run your force and for the last year they decided what kind of crime

needs to be tackled. They want to make the police more accountable but

that got off to a shaky start when less than 15% of Welsh voters turned

out. They were soon ramblings that an independent candidate didn't get

on with his chief constable and that new up publicly when he issued her

with an ultimatum -leaf or I will force you to go. The fallout was

felt across the policing landscape. If we had a different candidate

after the election and they failed to do something about what I

inherited, this would have failed in their duties. It was something that

had to be done and I did it. In North Wales, the independent

policing crime Commissioner has been cleared over accusations he lied

about his home address when nominated for the post.

In South Wales, this former MP has drawn up a 15 point plan for his

fourth and in Dyfed Powys, the Tory police and crime Commissioner has

introduced a new mantra: When we are in, we are open.

We have done pretty well at this and we have managed to accommodate 20%

cuts and crime is still falling. That may not always be the case.

Newport has its fair share of crime and a poll today suggested a third

of people didn't know they had a police and crime Commissioner.

I don't know what he does. I couldn't say who he is or what he

has done. I don't know what they are. It might

be a bit unfair to expect our police and crime Commissioner is to have

made a dramatic effect, have they made any at all?

In South Wales, crime is down by over 3% and in went, 5%. In

Liverpool is, crime is down 9% and in North Wales, 14%. That is on the

back of falling crime generally which has been going down for

decades. Despite the profile of peace and

crime Commissioner is, there has not been much progress on raising the

profile of raising the governance of policing.

In Wales, police and crime Commissioner 's have been more

visible and now they are exercising their considerable power.

The world's best rally drivers take to the streets and forests of North

and Mid Wales for the next four days as the World Rally Championship

enters its final stage. Matthew Richards is at the start line for

us. Thanks. I am at the start of this

global event which draws competitors and fans from around the world. This

year is the first time the rally will be held exclusively in North

and mid Wales. Its headquarters in Cardiff. The 2013 Wales Rally GB

also features debuts for an ex Formula one driver and a gold

medal-winning Olympian. The countdown is over and for the

next few days the peace and quiet of our countryside and coastline will

be shattered by high performance cars and their fearless occupants.

Among them Elfyn Evans who's father Gwyndaf is a former British Rally

winner. The move to North Wales means this really is his neck of the

woods. It is nice to see the stages in

North Wales. We have seen most of them by now and they are looking in

fantastic condition. Poland's Robert Koobitza has

switched Formula one for Rallying after a serious accident and the

biggest job swap has to be for Amy Williams who won gold for Team GB in

the skeleton bobsled in 2010. She's now a co-driver for TV pundit Tony

Jardine. How does the adrenaline rush compare?

It is very different. Into gallant and I had the scheme around -- in

skeleton. Here there is obviously the team, me and Tony together. We

both trust each other and that has been a great different experience.

Rally HQ is on Deeside. The biggest names in motorsport have set up shop

here. These young engineers are enjoying a personal tour. The

company I'm working with here we are delighted to be inviting to the

region and it showcases the small and medium enterprises as well.

It is great to be here alongside universities and representatives

from the education side to show what we can do.

Back on the tracks, the teams begin their campaign on a night-time stage

at Clocaenog Forest near Ruthin. This one is quite muddy but it is

most of the time like that and we have to adapt.

It's billed as the rally of legends, this weekend some new ones could be

created. It is exciting stuff and I'm joined

by the man in charge. Why this move to North Wales was Mac --?

The evidence is here this evening. The cooperation we have had from the

local council has been fantastic and now you can see the population of

North Wales turning out to make this a fantastic finale. And for the

drivers, you have been able to reintroduce some classic stages.

We always say that the best stages in the world for rally driving are

in Wales and in North Wales we got stages that we haven't been able to

use for many years. The names just roll off. They are

classic stages and the drivers this evening are quite young and probably

haven't ever experienced these stages before so hopefully a very

fresh challenge. Rally driving has a dedicated following but there are

perhaps people who don't realise how big a deal this is.

It is enormous. We are taking over running an event

over half of Wales. The geography is stunning and we have 3500 marshals

helping us run the event and about 70,000 or 80,000 people will be

watching. We have 450 media from across the world and 160 rally

cars. It is massive. We had better let you get on with it.

Thank you very much. Football and after weeks of

uncertainty, Chris Coleman has signed a new deal with Wales and

will remain in charge of the national side for the Euro 2016

qualifying campaign. He's believed to have signed a two-year deal.

Let's talk to our Football Correspondent, Rob Phillips.

What took him so long? A good question.

This is Welsh football so we should expect nothing else but there

appears to have been hesitancy on both sides in the last few months

and with that the fiasco when the manager lost his passport before

going to Macedonia. Then he appeared to be on trial in the last two days

with a good draw in Belgium after a win against Macedonia at home. It

will be confirmed tomorrow, the day before Wales play Finland. It is

clear that Chris Coleman does have the overwhelming backing of the

Wales squad. Tactically, he wants to put his

stamp on things and get us playing the way he wants, which is what you

need in a manager. We are all looking forward to working under him

for hopefully the long-term future and Saturday is a good chance for us

to go out there and show that. How will this go down with the fans?

I think there will be a mixed reaction and there are a number of

key issues for him to face. He will have to face the doubters who want

to change. He will have to find a replacement for John Hartson, who

quit about a week ago. That comes through, winning the fans over comes

through results and getting Wales to the 2016 campaign finals.

Rugby and having played just ten times for the Blues, Cory Allen will

win his first cap for Wales against Argentina on Saturday. Dan Biggar is

picked at fly half. Scarlet Rhodri Jones replaces Adam

Jones. Gethin Jenkins will win his 100th cap, becoming only the fourth

Welsh player to reach the milestone. Debutant Cory Allen says he can't

wait to make his first start. Am still a little bit nervous, if

I'm honest. Constant butterfly. I can't stop thinking about walking

out that tunnel it is so exciting. We feel it is a chance for him to

develop and we have a number of trials in Wales so for as it is a

chance to get some strength in depth there. Let's see what the weather

has in store. Benaz has the forecast.

We have had some showers but equally some sunshine. They can't knight

this evening and winds should become lighter and it will be cloudier. We

have a few showers dotted around. Clearer skies inland and more cloud

in the north and west. The temperatures will do away and clear

skies. A touch of Frost possible. A ridge of high pressure building,

keeping things quiet through tomorrow and Saturday and we will

gradually start to see a breakdown in that Saturday night into Sunday.

First thing tomorrow morning, there will be some brightness with the

best of the sunshine across the south-east. We will see this kind

over and when we have this cloud, it will produce some rain or drizzle.

The best of the brightness in the south-east with highs of 10

Celsius. Through tomorrow night, it will start to cloud over for

everybody and we will start to see some mist and fog forming,

especially across the border. We have some light winds with

temperatures around eight Celsius but getting down to three Celsius.

First thing on Saturday morning, it is a cloudy start with mist and

fog. We have had breaks of brain. -- outbreaks of rain. Temperatures

remain between nine and 11 Celsius but it will get colder through next

week. On Sunday it will start off dry and as we go through the day, we

will see a cold front coming southward and a band of more

persistent rain but those winds remain light through the weekend.

Some pressure -- some indication that we are in for a cold snap next

week and a risk of wintry showers but hopefully it will be confined to

higher ground. Get ready for that next week.

Britain has sent its biggest aircraft carrier to help in the

relief effort in the Philippines. She will join the US aircraft

carrier the US George Washington which has arrived with 5000 sailors

on board and will be a floating base. The number of patients in

Wales waiting longer than nine months for hospital treatment has

more than doubled in six months to more than 11,000.

The weight did improve slightly between August and September with

patients waiting between 26 and 36 weeks reaching an all-time high.

I'll have an update for you here at 8:00pm and after the BBC News at

Ten. That's Wales Today. Thank you for watching. Good evening.