JANE DODDS
COLUMNIST
I WOULD like to start by thanking all those readers who put their trust in me last Thursday and made me their MP. Now my work begins to repay that faith and create a better Wales for everyone.
Of course, the UK Government’s most urgent priority is Brexit. Last week Chancellor Sajid Javid announced an additional £2.1bn to prepare for no deal.
My opposition to no deal and my desire to stop Brexit is well known, but that is not what I want to focus on.
When I see the extra money being given to Northern Ireland to placate the DUP or the increased spending to prepare for no deal, I can’t help but think of Theresa May’s claim in 2017 that there is no magic money tree.
If there is a magic money tree for the DUP and a no deal Brexit, surely it is time we used this tree to give our NHS in Wales the funding it so badly needs and so richly deserves.
The Liberal Democrats are committed to putting a penny on income tax across the UK to fund the NHS and social care.
In England this money would go directly to health and social care, in Wales it would be up to Welsh Government to decide how to spend this funding.
We would urge the Welsh Government to spend this money on health and social care.
Anyone who has interacted with the NHS in Wales in recent years will know the great pressures our NHS is under, from A&E to GP surgeries.
This leaves patients waiting too long for the treatment and our incredible NHS staff working under unacceptable stress.
We need to hire more staff to address staff shortages in emergency care, nursing and primary care, amongst other areas. More staff would speed up access to treatment whilst improving working conditions for existing staff.
This would make it easier to recruit more staff, retain existing staff and convince former staff to return to the workforce. This further improves the quality of care patients receive.
However, we cannot ignore the links between health and social care. Too many hospital beds are filled by people who cannot be discharged back into social care because of a lack of capacity.
By giving more money to local authorities for social care we can improve the quality of care people receive, free up NHS services for those who need them and ease financial pressures on other local government services.
During my campaign I discussed crossborder healthcare; an issue close to the heart of many people in Powys and across east Wales.
Proper funding for both health services is the best way to ensure cross-border healthcare works for patients on both sides of the border.
For years everyone from public servants facing pay freezes to welfare claimants facing poverty have been told that their sacrifice has been necessary for the national good. Now it seems that was a lie and that the UK Government can find money for any political project they want.
If the UK Government have discovered their magic money tree, it must be spent on the vital services the public rely on like our NHS.
■ Jane Dodds MP, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats