MS for North Wales speaks out about state of the Welsh NHS
Having a well-functioning healthcare system should be at the heart of any modern nation.
Unfortunately, in Wales we have a system that is spluttering and hardly firing on all cylinders.
Recent NHS statistics for Wales showed waiting lists remaining at 789,929 pathways, which is the equivalent of nearly 1-in-4 Welsh people.
Furthermore, those two-year waits for treatment on the NHS have risen again to 9,600 in Wales, compared to just 171 in England.
Only half of red calls (the most severe) received an emergency/ambulance response within the eight minute target time and the percentage of patients waiting less than four hours in Welsh emergency departments came out at 67.1% - the target is 95%
Those are just a few of the statistics that demonstrate the poor state that the health service is in.
That comes after twenty-six years of the NHS in Wales being run by the Welsh Government in Cardiff, which has been led by Labour consistently since 1999.
It's not good enough, plain and simple.
We've heard warm words from the First Minister, but the reality on the ground is a system that has been mismanaged and underfunded for far too long.
Many health professionals are working hard in intolerable conditions, which isn't fair on them.
Patients are suffering, waiting in corridors and languishing in ambulances stuck outside hospitals for hours on end.
None of this looks like a health service that is fit for 2025, never mind the years to come which will pose increasingly difficult challenges.
This week down in the Welsh Parliament, the Welsh Conservatives are tabling a debate and calling on the Welsh Government to declare a health emergency.
I really believe the situation is that serious - the entire Welsh Government should be geared towards fixing health in Wales. It takes up a large amount of the budget, yet the outcomes are poor.
I'd like to see an end to funding for vanity projects (like the default 20mph speed limit and thirty-six more politicians in the Senedd) and a laser-like focus on the real issues that Wales faces.
Remarkably, back in 2019 the Labour-run Welsh Government declared a climate emergency and in 2021 they declared a nature emergency was declared.
We want them to declare a health emergency, and focus on the things that matter to the Welsh people on a day-to-day basis.
As ever, if you'd like to get in touch then you can email me at sam.rowlands@senedd.wales
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