Government must give aid to NHS

AN ALREADY frail NHS under increasing pressure – that’s what the recent batch of data from our NHS in Wales told us.

It showed us that ambulances were taking longer to respond to even the most urgent calls, it showed us that increasing numbers of patients were on waiting lists, and it showed us that those patients were waiting for longer than ever before for their first treatment.

If this is something you’ve experienced, then hearing about these statistics is merely confirmation of what you’re already experiencing, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this.

I feel too for all those staff within health and care because this is not why they went into the health profession, this is not why they wanted to become carers. They want to provide much better and much quicker care, but they’re not able to because they just don’t have the support and the resource to be able to do so.

Of course the pandemic has made things undeniably worse, but what’s incredibly frustrating is that, while we didn’t know there was a pandemic on the way, it was known that we had an unsustainable health and care system. And now we’re seeing it – we’re seeing it day by day, and in worsening statistics month by month.

I often get asked what I’d do if I was in government, but here’s the thing – it’s not about what I would do because there are experts across the health and care system telling government what is needed.

For example, Macmillan Cancer Support has been calling for a clear plan for how to tackle the problems in cancer, the Royal College of Surgeons has been emphasising the need for “Covid-light” surgical hubs to help keep surgery going during the winter, and the NHS Confederation has called for a better link-up between health and social care so that thousands of patients who are medically fit can be discharged from our hospitals with the care and support they need.

Turning around the health service is not a quick job – it’s been likened to trying to turn an oil tanker – but that’s not to say there aren’t short-term responses that will help us get through winter. It could be action as dramatic as bringing in the Army to help with the desperate problems within the ambulance service. It could be using the extra hospital spaces built during the pandemic to help create “Covid-light” hubs so that operations don’t have to be cancelled.

These are short-term things that need to be accelerated alongside putting in a long-term post-Covid plan – the detail of which we’re still not seeing.

We’ve thanked our hardworking staff many times, but now is the time for the Welsh Government to really show its appreciation by demonstrating what it is doing to relieve the acute pressure on our health services. Because it is up to the government – they are the ones with the civil service behind them, and who have the power and the ability to make the difference. The government must act swiftly to address the needs of both patients and staff alike.