Senior Labour MP Ann Clwyd, who has been campaigning to improve the quality of NHS care, today echoed calls by the Welsh Conservatives for a Keogh-style inquiry into the Welsh NHS.
In July 2013, Andrew RT Davies AM, Leader of the Opposition, and Darren Millar AM, Shadow Minister for Health, called for an independent inquiry into the standards of patient care in the Welsh NHS, similar to that undertaken by Sir Bruce Keogh in England.
On 1st October 2013, Labour’s First Minister, Carwyn Jones, rejected the call on cost grounds.
Publishing a report into the handling of NHS complaints, Ms Clwyd said that high mortality rates are ‘a smoke signal that something is wrong’ and called for an investigation into mortality rates in Welsh hospitals.
Andrew RT Davies said, “Ann Clwyd is a well-respected campaigner on standards in our NHS and I welcome her support for a Keogh-style inquiry into the Welsh NHS.
“Successive reports of failings in NHS care, C-Difficile outbreaks, worsening waiting times all deserve thorough investigation and the way to do that is though an independent inquiry.
“Patients deserve the highest levels of care and NHS staff deserve to work in conditions with the resources to reasonably deliver those standards.
“You cannot put a price on a life and I hope these calls will encourage Carwyn Jones to revise his original rejection of a Keogh-style inquiry on cost grounds.”
Darren Millar said “I welcome Ann Clwyd’s intervention and hope Welsh Labour Ministers will listen to her well-informed conclusions about the needs of the Welsh NHS.
“Labour’s record-breaking cuts to the Welsh NHS caused managers to pay more attention to finances than infection controls in North Wales, placed unprecedented pressure on staff and led to a rise in waiting times.
“It is unimaginable that Labour’s NHS have not affected the quality of patient care or hospital death rates and these deserve proper independent scrutiny.
“For years, Welsh Conservatives have been the only party calling for the NHS budget to be protected and are now receiving support in our campaign for an independent inquiry into the standard of NHS care.”
