The BBC carries a report today by a health think tank which says that Wales faces deeper cuts in its NHS budget than any other part of the UK.
Now I am no statistician and figure quite frankly leave me cold, so I am not going to go into long winded comparisons of figures and percentages. But it is the case that Wales spends more per head than England on the health service anyway but with outcomes for patients that are not as good.
It is why, unlike the Tories, we did not make rash promise to ring fence the health budget in our Assembly manifesto. The question is not of how much money is thrown at the service but of how wisely it is spent.
Under Labour and Plaid it certainly has not yielded the results that we would have hoped for. Patients are waiting far too long for treatment and operations. My own father is currently in absolute agony waiting for a hip replacement and has been years getting even as far as having a proper diagnosis and being put on a waiting list.
The health service in Wales is a disgrace. No disrespect to the hard working and dedicated front line staff, but the management and political direction has not served us well.
Still the majority of the people of Wales are obviously happy with it - they put Labour back in charge after all.
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