Party of Wales Leader Leanne Wood has said that the improvements and level of performance of the Scottish NHS is evidence that devolution is not the problem in Wales but rather Labour’s questionable leadership.
Ms Wood was speaking having met the Scottish Health Secretary Alex Neil MSP who briefed the Plaid Cymru leader on Scotland’s alternative model to health privatisation in England and Labour’s centralisation plans in Wales.
Speaking in Edinburgh Ms Wood said:
“The phoney war being fought by Labour and the Tories on the Welsh NHS does nothing for patients, NHS staff or attempts to attract new business or medical professionals to Wales.
“There has been an attempt from some quarters in recent months to attribute Labour’s handling of the Welsh National Health Service to devolution itself.
“During my meetings with the Scottish government today and particularly from conversations with Scottish Health Secretary Alex Neil, Plaid Cymru’s long-held view has been confirmed: it is the political leadership that has been found wanting in Wales and not the devolution process.”
Ms Wood drew on three key health indicators that showed the NHS flourishing in Scotland whilst struggling under Labour in Wales.
The Party of Wales leader added:
“In Scotland, the target is for 90 per cent of patients to be treated within 18 weeks of referral. They have exceeded this target for over two and a half years.
“In Wales, the Labour government have set the bar lower. Their target is to treat 95% of patients within 26 weeks, and they have failed to achieve that. In fact, in comparing Wales and Scotland using the same 18 week target, the difference is stark. 35% of Welsh patients have to wait longer than 18 weeks for treatment, compared to just 8% of Scottish patients..
“Seventy-four per cent of Category A calls to the Scottish ambulance service were responded to within 8 minutes. In Wales, only 55% of ambulances arrived within 8 minutes according to the latest statistics, and the average over the past year has been just 60%.
“In Scotland, over 94% of patients who need diagnostic tests such as Colonoscopy or Cystoscopy (which can be used to detect cancer as well as other serious health problems) receive these tests within 6 weeks.
“In Wales, only half of patients get these essential tests within 6 weeks.
“The SNP’s recruitment of doctors has also ensured they now have 50% more General Practitioners than Wales.”
“It wasn’t always like this. In 2007, Scotland was performing at a similar level to Wales.
“Since the SNP was elected to office, they have managed to transform healthcare in Scotland.
“Scotland and Wales have almost identical powers over health. It’s therefore clear that it isn’t the process of devolution that has caused poorer outcomes in Wales, but the party currently leading the Welsh government.”
Ms Wood reiterated her party’s determination to improve the Welsh Health Service whilst staying true to its core values. She added:
“Plan Cymru is consulting on exciting plans to recruit 1,000 additional doctors to our health service to meet our health needs and to improve waiting times.
“We want to see staffing and other resources issues in our ambulance service addressed to meet and exceed target response times.
“We will continue to resist the practice of pitting communities against each other as a means of cutting back on front line health services, especially in light of the centralising South Wales hospital programme.”
