THE ROYAL College of Nursing has described new health figures in England as “bleak.” But how much bleaker is the situation in Wales which is largely ignored not only by the mainstream media but that which is based in Wales as well?
Be under no illusions about how bad the situation is. In England, there are 331,623 people waiting more than a year for treatment. But in Wales that figures stands at 171,409. Yes, there are twice as many people waiting in England but it has 18 times the population of Wales!
Even more damning, in England the number of people waiting more than two years to start routine hospital treatment is 12,735 compared to a staggering 68,032 in Wales. England with 18 times more people than Wales has a fifth of the Welsh total on their waiting lists.
Both Wales and England have been through the same Covid pandemic but of course, we already had people in Wales waiting two years for orthopaedic operations like hip and knee replacements long before Covid struck .
That figure was in part due to the Welsh Labour Government’s inexplicable decision some time ago to cut £1 billion from the Welsh NHS – making Wales the only part of the UK where funding was cut. The repercussions of that fateful decision have dogged Wales for years and the NHS has never caught up.
The Welsh NHS has been mismanaged by Labour ever since 1999 when it was given the power to run it. Even now, the difference in how Welsh Government has responded to Covid is creating huge disparities in outcomes for Welsh patients.
England is seeing falls in waiting times for treatment and reductions in waiting lists as the UK Conservative Government there has got to grips with the situation by opening diagnostic hubs and surgical hubs to fast track people through the system.
Wales resisted setting up surgical hubs even after the Royal College of Surgeons has urged them to do so. They have now agreed but little progress has been made.
One in five people in Wales is now on an NHS waiting list. We are all paying the price for this lack of foresight and forward planning. Dither and delay have left thousands in pain waiting years for treatment – and the situation will only get worse.
Of course, Welsh Government’s focus has been elsewhere during the time –plotting with Plaid Cymru to increase the number of politicians from 60 to 96 at a cost of £100m over five years.
They have also decided to scrap the first-past-the-post voting system, without holding a referendum, in favour of PR in order to keep themselves in power in perpetuity.
People need to wake up before it is too late.