:00:19. > :00:27.Good evening. Cutting NHS funding in Wales may be responsible for longer
:00:28. > :00:31.waiting times. That's according to a major new report by the Nuffield
:00:32. > :00:36.Trust and the health foundation, which has compared the health
:00:37. > :00:44.service across the UK. Also suggests there is no evidence to show the NHS
:00:45. > :00:47.as a whole is lagging behind. What seems to be a simple question
:00:48. > :00:51.can sometimes take a long time to answer. Six academics worked for
:00:52. > :00:54.more than two years are trying to figure out whether Wales, Scotland,
:00:55. > :00:59.England or Northern Ireland and the best performing health service.
:01:00. > :01:02.What's clear from this study is that on lots of health targets that
:01:03. > :01:05.measure time, such as ambulance response times and the amount of
:01:06. > :01:09.time patients have to wait for common hospital procedures, the NHS
:01:10. > :01:15.in Wales is struggling to keep up with other countries in the UK. Up
:01:16. > :01:18.until 2009, waiting times in Wales for things like hip, knee and
:01:19. > :01:22.coronary artery bypass surgery improved a lot. But since then,
:01:23. > :01:32.they've deteriorated and lengthened again. Peter Bishop knows what
:01:33. > :01:35.that's like. He spent more than a year waiting for his hip
:01:36. > :01:39.replacement. They told me that they'd get me fixed as soon as
:01:40. > :01:44.possible. I didn't see him again for at least nine months. So why are
:01:45. > :01:51.Welsh patients waiting so much longer? We can't be certain about
:01:52. > :01:54.why that happened but one point is very clear - that Wales was the only
:01:55. > :01:57.one of the four countries which actually cut its expenditure on
:01:58. > :02:01.health in 2010 for three years. And, actually, one of the things you
:02:02. > :02:07.would expect in that climate, as money gets tight, is that waiting
:02:08. > :02:10.times would lengthen. Decision was made the start of this Assembly term
:02:11. > :02:14.to make sure that we protected the social services side. Over the last
:02:15. > :02:17.ten years we have succeeded in reducing and reducing the number of
:02:18. > :02:23.people who are delayed in hospital beds when they don't need to be
:02:24. > :02:28.there. Those figures are now at an all-time low. But some of the
:02:29. > :02:31.findings are more encouraging. Rates of preventable deaths are lower here
:02:32. > :02:34.than in Scotland and Northern Ireland and the North East of
:02:35. > :02:38.England, which has a similar demographic to Wales. And Welsh
:02:39. > :02:42.patients are the most satisfied with the way the NHS is run. But they're
:02:43. > :02:47.the least happy about their experiences of staying in hospital.
:02:48. > :02:50.But not every aspect of health care was covered in this study and in
:02:51. > :02:54.other areas, like social care, bed blocking and cancer waits, the Welsh
:02:55. > :02:59.Government argues it's ahead of the pack. 51-year-old Fiona Bailey from
:03:00. > :03:11.Cardiff was told last year she had breast cancer. It took less than two
:03:12. > :03:14.weeks for her to see a specialist. I was diagnosed in October and
:03:15. > :03:17.everything's just moved so swiftly since then. I haven't had to wait
:03:18. > :03:20.for any treatment dates. In Llangollen today, the Prime Minister
:03:21. > :03:28.and the Health Secretary renewed their attacks on Welsh Labour's
:03:29. > :03:31.health record. A health union has called on them to apologise to staff
:03:32. > :03:36.and the Welsh health minister says today's study demolishes their
:03:37. > :03:39.claims. His utterly unfounded assertion has been that somehow in
:03:40. > :03:42.Wales things are uniquely bad and everything is fine in his own
:03:43. > :03:47.backyard and hear things are awful. What this report tells you is that
:03:48. > :03:50.that is absolutely not the case. But opposition parties argue the study
:03:51. > :03:54.is clearly not a glowing endorsement of Welsh Labour's health record.
:03:55. > :03:58.They claim it proves patients have to clock up many more hours, days
:03:59. > :04:10.and months waiting, simply because they live in Wales.
:04:11. > :04:13.So, attacks on the NHS here dominating the opening day of the
:04:14. > :04:16.Welsh Conservatives party conference in Llangollen. The Prime Minister
:04:17. > :04:23.described Offa's Dyke as the line between life and death.
:04:24. > :04:26.These upholsterers in Holywell are the kind of people the Prime
:04:27. > :04:29.Minister thinks have the right ambition for Wales. In his address
:04:30. > :04:32.to the party faithful in Llangollen, ambition was his
:04:33. > :04:36.favourite word. He used it 18 times. Most of what he said was about the
:04:37. > :04:40.economy. His main claim was that Wales is not only sharing in the
:04:41. > :04:44.recovery but leading it. The UK capital for jobs growth is right
:04:45. > :04:50.here in Wales. That's because we have a serious, long-term economic
:04:51. > :04:53.plan. And that plan is working. David Cameron tried to balance the
:04:54. > :04:56.positive with the negative but the criticism, when it came, about the
:04:57. > :05:03.Welsh Government's stewardship of the NHS was further than he's gone
:05:04. > :05:08.before. One in seven people in Wales is on an NHS waiting list. We have a
:05:09. > :05:12.cancer drugs fund in England but not here. And I tell you, when Offa's
:05:13. > :05:17.Dyke becomes the line between life and death, we are witnessing a
:05:18. > :05:20.national scandal. Earlier the man who runs the NHS in England, Jeremy
:05:21. > :05:26.Hunt, came to Wales with a message that the NHS here was sleepwalking
:05:27. > :05:29.into a Mid Staffs. This was the hospital scandal in England in which
:05:30. > :05:36.years of neglect and abuse contributed to a number of
:05:37. > :05:39.unnecessary deaths. You think it's morally wrong what the Welsh
:05:40. > :05:42.Government is doing? It is morally indefensible to try to sweep poor
:05:43. > :05:46.care under the carpet. And we have had in England over the last year a
:05:47. > :05:51.very uncomfortable and difficult transparency revolution. We've said
:05:52. > :05:54.in our NHS, which we love to bits, where we find things that are going
:05:55. > :05:58.wrong, we're going to deal with them. Some within the party have
:05:59. > :06:03.been uneasy about the Conservative strategy as being too negative. That
:06:04. > :06:13.concern was nowhere to be seen in Llangollen this weekend.
:06:14. > :06:17.A 19-year-old man who was injured in an explosion in a field at his home
:06:18. > :06:20.in Pembrokeshire has been arrested. Jordan Smith was airlifted to
:06:21. > :06:25.hospital after the incident in the village of Wiston yesterday. His
:06:26. > :06:29.condition is stable. The property has been cordoned off and search.
:06:30. > :06:33.Police say he's been arrested on suspicion of an explosive related
:06:34. > :06:37.offence. A banking industry could be based in Wrexham has announced plans
:06:38. > :06:41.to create 200 jobs. It provides research and information
:06:42. > :06:50.to banks and other financial institutions and employs 220 people
:06:51. > :06:53.at the moment. Avox will double its workforce by 2016 to stop police are
:06:54. > :06:57.continuing to investigate the sudden death of a 15-year-old boy in
:06:58. > :07:02.Swansea, the 15-year-old was found yesterday morning.
:07:03. > :07:05.The death of the teenager, who was a pupil at a nearby comprehensive
:07:06. > :07:10.school, is being treated as unexplained.
:07:11. > :07:14.In football, Cardiff city have launched disciplinary action against
:07:15. > :07:18.two members of staff over claims that their team was leaked to
:07:19. > :07:34.Crystal Palace in advance of last Saturday's pre-0 defeat. The club's
:07:35. > :07:42.-- numeric pre-0. I've built my life on loyalty and honesty. That's the
:07:43. > :07:46.values I get from my mum and dad. In football, you need to stick
:07:47. > :07:51.together. We stick together. We're glued together and this week has
:07:52. > :07:57.proved that. In Rugby, Cardiff Blues have beaten Edinburgh away by
:07:58. > :08:00.29-22. Meanwhile, the ospreys also went to night, beating Leinster
:08:01. > :08:11.25-19. Time for the weather. Not looking
:08:12. > :08:14.too bad for the weekend. Mostly settled. It will be cloudy on
:08:15. > :08:20.Saturday and generally sunnier on Sunday. Tonight is largely dry,
:08:21. > :08:24.turning chilly with some ground frost forming in sheltered rural
:08:25. > :08:28.spots but clouding over further west by dawn. That's thanks to a cold
:08:29. > :08:33.front which brings increasing cloud through tomorrow and there is rain
:08:34. > :08:37.on this, too. Tomorrow, the best of any brightness early on further
:08:38. > :08:40.south and east. A similar morning across England but that front pushes
:08:41. > :08:45.through Scotland and Northern Ireland and then the breeze picks
:08:46. > :08:47.up. Cloud thickens. Some light rain and drizzle reaches Wales and the
:08:48. > :08:52.North West of England by the afternoon. Highs of ten in the North
:08:53. > :08:56.West of Scotland, 15 in the south-east of England. Tomorrow
:08:57. > :09:01.afternoon, that band of rain peters out as it moves the south-east would
:09:02. > :09:05.across Wales, so not huge amounts of rain tomorrow. A fresh westerly
:09:06. > :09:10.breeze and highs of 11 Celsius along Cardigan Bay, up to 13 in
:09:11. > :09:13.Denbighshire. The front continues to clear south-east would into Sunday
:09:14. > :09:18.morning and a ridge of high pressure builds back in from the Azores so
:09:19. > :09:23.chilly start on Sunday with a touch of frost possible. More in the way
:09:24. > :09:27.of sunshine on Sunday. Can't rule out a shower but it will stay fine
:09:28. > :09:33.and dry for most. Highs of ten to 14. The settled spell continues into
:09:34. > :09:38.next week with high-pressure dominating on Monday and Tuesday.
:09:39. > :09:44.Largely dry with more fine weather. Clearer by day and colder by night,
:09:45. > :09:49.so a continued risk of frost. Still some uncertainty about next week but
:09:50. > :09:54.you can keep up-to-date on our website.
:09:55. > :10:01.That's all for today. There will be updates over the weekend from 6:30pm
:10:02. > :10:02.tomorrow. From all of us here, have a great weekend.