English: Diolch, Llywydd. I'd like to thank the Conservative group and Angela Burns for bringing this motion before us today. We will be supporting the motion unamended. I'd also like to associate myself with the thanks that Angela's made to the RNIB for very useful and powerful information, and I would agree with everything that Angela said in her contribution and I won't trouble the Assembly by repeating it. I just want to talk about two things, and one is to talk a little bit about the impact on people's lives, because this is a situation that happened in my own family. My father was diagnosed with cataracts; there were very long waiting times - this was a long time ago, in the early 1990s. We could not persuade him to break his principles and allow us as his children to pay for private treatment. He felt that that would be wrong. He voted for the Government in 1945 that created the national health service, and he wasn't going to jump any queues. But the upshot of that was that, by the time he was eligible for his NHS operation he was no longer treatable; there was damage under the cataract. I don't always talk about personal experience, but I think it's important to do so here, because the impact on somebody's life, that loss of independence that Angela was talking about, not being able to read a book, not being able to travel without having to have us with him, and the effect on his dignity was, I think, the worst thing of all - that being dependent, having been such an independent person. So, I think it's important whatever we do, and, indeed, when we talk about other health issues we've got to remember how it affects people. I agree with what Angela said that it is really positive that now these issues within the service are visible because of action that the Welsh Government has taken, but I do think that they need more urgency than the Government amendment would suggest is there. And the other specific point I want to make in addition to the impact on people's lives is about accessible information. If people are missing appointments and there is some pushback in the system saying, 'Well, it's not our fault that there are so many missed appointments', say the health boards, 'It's because people don't turn up', well, if you don't send a blind person information in an accessible format, if you don't phone them, if you don't get them to identify somebody they want to receive the information for them, they will miss appointments and that will have an effect on the system. So, I'd really like to ask the Minister today to have a close look, as he drives this agenda forward, at whether the health boards are consistently providing information in accessible formats. Blind people should not have to have their children and their grandchildren reading appointment letters to them - it's not appropriate - or people who are losing their sight. I'm, again, grateful, and I won't say much more, to the Conservatives for bringing this forward. This is a very, very important agenda and I really think we need a sense of urgency, because every day there will be one of our fellow citizens who is losing their ability to see needlessly, and none of us, I'm sure, can be content with that.
Welsh: Diolch, Lywydd. Hoffwn ddiolch i'r grŵp Ceidwadol ac Angela Burns am ddod â'r cynnig hwn gerbron heddiw. Byddwn yn cefnogi'r cynnig heb ei ddiwygio. Hoffwn hefyd gysylltu fy hun â diolchiadau Angela i'r RNIB am y wybodaeth ddefnyddiol a grymus iawn, a buaswn yn cytuno â phob dim y mae Angela wedi'i ddweud yn eu chyfraniad ac nid wyf am ei ailadrodd i'r Cynulliad. Hoffwn siarad am ddau beth, ac un ohonynt yw sôn ychydig bach am yr effaith ar fywydau pobl, oherwydd mae hon yn sefyllfa a ddigwyddodd yn fy nheulu fy hun. Cafodd fy nhad ddiagnosis o gataractau; roedd yr amseroedd aros yn hir iawn - roedd hyn amser maith yn ôl, ar ddechrau'r 1990au. Ni allem ei berswadio i fynd yn groes i'w egwyddorion a gadael i ni fel ei blant dalu am driniaeth breifat. Teimlai y byddai hynny'n anghywir. Pleidleisiodd dros y Llywodraeth yn 1945 a greodd y gwasanaeth iechyd gwladol ac nid oedd yn mynd i neidio i flaen unrhyw giw. Ond pen draw hyn oedd nad oedd modd ei drin mwyach erbyn iddo ddod yn gymwys i gael ei lawdriniaeth GIG; roedd niwed o dan y cataract. Nid wyf bob amser yn siarad am brofiadau personol, ond rwy'n credu ei bod yn bwysig gwneud hynny yma, oherwydd mae'r effaith ar fywyd rhywun, y colli annibyniaeth y siaradodd Angela amdano, methu darllen llyfr, methu teithio heb orfod ein cael ni gydag ef, a'r effaith ar ei urddas oedd y peth gwaethaf oll rwy'n credu - o fod yn ddibynnol, ac yntau wedi bod yn berson mor annibynnol. Felly rwy'n credu ei bod hi'n bwysig beth bynnag a wnawn, ac yn wir, pan siaradwn am faterion iechyd eraill, fod rhaid inni gofio sut y mae'n effeithio ar bobl. Rwy'n cytuno â'r hyn a ddywedodd Angela ei bod hi'n gadarnhaol yn awr fod y problemau hyn yn weladwy yn y gwasanaeth oherwydd y camau y mae Llywodraeth Cymru wedi'u cymryd, ond credaf fod angen iddynt weithredu ar fwy o frys nag y byddai gwelliant y Llywodraeth yn awgrymu sy'n bodoli. A'r pwynt penodol arall yr hoffwn ei wneud yn ogystal â'r effaith ar fywydau pobl yw'r angen am wybodaeth hygyrch. Os yw pobl yn colli apwyntiadau, ac mae rhywfaint o ymateb gwrthwynebus yn y system yn dweud 'Wel, nid ein bai ni yw bod cynifer o apwyntiadau'n cael eu colli', meddai'r byrddau iechyd, 'Nid yw pobl yn dod i'w hapwyntiadau', wel, os nad ydych yn anfon gwybodaeth i berson dall ar ffurf hygyrch, os nad ydych yn eu ffonio, os nad ydych yn eu cael i ddynodi rhywun arall a allai dderbyn y wybodaeth ar eu rhan, fe fyddant yn colli apwyntiadau a bydd hynny'n effeithio ar y system. Felly, hoffwn ofyn i'r Gweinidog heddiw edrych yn agos wrth iddo wthio ei agenda yn ei blaen i weld i ba raddau y mae byrddau iechyd yn gyson yn darparu gwybodaeth ar ffurf hygyrch. Ni ddylai pobl ddal orfod cael eu plant a'u hwyrion i ddarllen llythyrau apwyntiad iddynt - nid yw'n briodol - na phobl sy'n colli eu golwg. Unwaith eto, rwy'n ddiolchgar, ac ni ddywedaf lawer mwy, i'r Ceidwadwyr am gyflwyno hyn. Mae hon yn agenda bwysig tu hwnt, ac rwy'n credu'n gryf fod yn rhaid inni gael ymdeimlad o frys oherwydd bob dydd bydd un o'n cyd-ddinasyddion yn colli eu gallu i weld, a hynny'n ddiangen, ac rwy'n siŵr na all neb ohonom fod yn fodlon ynglŷn â hynny.