Welsh Labour ‘blaming patients for problems in NHS’, claims Plaid AM
LABOUR would rather blame patients for being ill than face up to the problems confronting the NHS in Wales, a Plaid Cymru AM claims.
Speaking at the party’s conference in Newport yesterday, Rhun Ap Iorwerth attacked Welsh Labour over its handling of health services.
He said: “And of course they will blame patients for being ill. They’ll blame high attendance at A+E on people who should have gone to their GP. They’ll blame long waiting times on patients being inappropriately referred for treatment.
“They’ll blame the high rates of obesity and smoking – as if everyone in Scotland and England has a perfectly healthy lifestyle. It’s made to seem as if poor performance is inevitable. What can they do? They’ve only been in government, after all, running the Welsh NHS for 18 years.”
He compared the party’s approach to the NHS in Wales is like the five stages of mourning.
Mr ap Iorwerth said: “At first there is denial of the problem. We’ll hear comments like ‘Those figures can’t be compared, that was an isolated incident.’ Then we’ll move to the second stage, anger. They’ll say ‘you’re politicising the NHS” when we point out a problem. We’ll be told, ‘you’re attacking hard-working staff.’
“But when the issue we are raising won’t go away, Labour will then move into the third stage, bargaining. And they’ll promise us in the chamber that ‘things will be better by this time next year’.
Mr ap Iorwerth said depression follows, and that the country is told “Wales is just too ill compared to others”.
He added: “Which is sort of an echo of the argument that we’re too poor to be self-governing, and is about as accurate
as well. It was dispelled by the audit office several years ago.
“We’ll also be told that ‘the Barnett formula is so unfair’ and Labour simply doesn’t have the resources to fully meet the needs of Wales. I’m sorry but the extra funds we do need simply don’t explain the performance gap. Particularly when we can point to numerous examples of incompetence of financial waste such as spending hundreds of millions of pounds on agency staff because of the failure to plan the workforce properly.”
Mr ap Iorwerth said the final stage was acceptance. He said: “We still haven’t seen Labour accepting that our Health service can and should do better for Wales.”
Anglesey AM since 2013, Mr ap Iorwerth insisted Plaid Cymru will focus on improving the NHS, including setting higher targets for diagnosing cancer.
He said: “But it’s a pretty grim mix we have now. The resolute austerity of the Tories, and the resolute lethargy of Labour, seeking to run Wales like managers.”