CAROLINE JONES
COLUMNIST
THIS week is a very important week for health and social care in Wales.
As this article goes to print, the Welsh Government is unveiling its LongTerm Plan for Health and Social Care in Wales.
I don’t know at this point what the plans are, but if they are based upon the work undertaken by the Parliamentary Review, then I will be happy to support them.
Our NHS is 70 years old next month and has seen massive leaps forward in terms of care.
As a result, we are living longer but relying more and more on health and care services.
Health and social services now account for over half of the Welsh Budget, around £7.3bn per year, yet we have growing waiting lists, shortages of key staff and the majority of local health boards needing some kind of government intervention.
We cannot carry on as we are.
Some politicians are arguing for more money for the NHS and want to put up taxes to pay for it.
I disagree that more money is needed. We already spend more per head on health than they do in England, yet we have worse outcomes, longer waits and the lowest cancer survival rates in Western Europe. Throwing more money at the problem is not the answer.
The Independent Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care recommended that Wales adopts totally new models of care.
They recommended that services be organised around individuals and their families and that care be as close to home as possible.
The review recommended that services of the future have to be preventative, have to be easy to access and of the highest quality. They also outlined the importance of having the right workforce in place.
This is the change we need. Services of the future have to be better-planned and delivered. We can’t afford to spend more; we have to spend smarter.
I hope when the Cabinet Secretary for Health unveils his government’s Long-Term Plan for Health and Social Care in Wales, it truly is a transformative plan – otherwise we won’t have an NHS in another 70 years.
■ Caroline Jones is health spokeswoman for Ukip