Excuse me Mrs Clwyd – have you heard of devolution?

Now I have every sympathy with anyone who suffers or sees their friends or family suffer due to a lack of appropriate care in the health service in any form.  That sympathy extends to Anne Clwyd, MP for the Cynon Valley who is in the news this week complaining about the poor standards of care experienced by her husband who passed away in October.  If the quality of care he received at the University Hospital of Wales was as poor as she described then indeed there is much to be improved.

What I can’t understand, however, is quite why, as reported by Wales Online, she was challenging David Cameron over this in the House of Commons.

The Health Service is of course devolved.  The Minister responsible for it in Wales is Mrs Clwyd’s own Labour colleague Lesley Griffiths.  Maybe she should take her very real and understandably very strongly felt concerns up there.  There are far too many people not getting the care and treatment they deserve in Wales for all manner of reasons, but nobody can lay this at the door of the Westminster Government.

Edwina needs to get her act together

Here we go again. 

“Politicians say they fear minor injury units at two Pembrokeshire hospitals set to temporarily close after Christmas will never reopen again.

Health services managers say nurses at Tenby and South Pembrokeshire hospitals are needed to keep the accident and emergency unit at Withybush running.” (full story here)

This comes just a few weeks after the closure of the MIU at Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda for the exact same reason - to keep A&E at the Royal Glamorgan going.

There are worries over the Unit at Barry, and Chepstow hospital lost its Minor Injuries Unit last year, although the reason given in that case was lack of patents!

It really is an absolute disgrace that people in Wales are getting a second rate health service because of the inadequacies of the Labour Welsh Government. 

And that is what lies behind this.  Despite what the Tories want people to think this is not about money or the lack of it – it is about poor political judgement and bad management of a vital service.

Edwina needs to get her act together

One night in Wrexham

The story of the week this week - second only to the tale of escaped cows taking over a Tredegar street – has to be the unintentional meeting of Edwina Hart with MPs on the select committee on Welsh affairs.

As reported by David Cornock, “It was either an amazing coincidence or someone in Welsh politics has a mischievous sense of humour.”

Just in case anyone is unaware of the background a row broke out last week when it was revealed that that Ms Hart, Labour Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science Minister had refused to meet with the Commons Welsh Affairs committee. Members of the Welsh Affairs committee - all but two of whom represent constituencies in Wales - offered to travel to Cardiff Bay to meet her on September 15.  Apparently Ms Hart sent the committee a two-sentence response to their request which simply, and rather rudely, stated: “I will not be attending

In answer to an oral question in the Siambr on the 23^rd June she was equally scathing

Andrew R.T. Davies: Engagement with people is a vital plank for encouraging inward investment and competitiveness within the Welsh economy. Do you think that your letter to the Welsh Affairs Committee was therefore an appropriate answer to a committee from another place that was looking to help you with your ministerial responsibilities to attract more business into Wales? Could you explain why you feel unable to meet with that committee?

Edwina Hart: I am required to look very carefully at all invitations that I receive in respect of my portfolio. The Welsh Affairs Committee has also written to me about issues around broadband, and I am happily sending it written evidence on that, because it is a matter that needs to be dealt with jointly across the UK. However, the economy is my responsibility in Wales, and I think that I am capable of doing my job

So when she walked into the dining room of the Ramada hotel in Wrexham to find those very same committee members sat there she must have surely been looking out for Jeremy Beadle to appear.  No doubt some SPAD came in for some harsh words when she returned to the safety of the Bay Bubble.

The arrogance of this woman is quite astonishing.  In her previous incarnation as Minister for Health she refused to accept any responsibility for any of the multitudinous problems within the health service, despite making it very clear that she was in charge!  Now she is so confident in her own ability to rejuvenate the economy of Wales that she is unwilling to meet with MPs who presumably have the same aim in mind.

 For all our sakes let's hope she is as good as she thinks she is.

Still waiting......

The Western Mail today reports a  massive rise in patients waiting nine months and more for surgery

Almost 4,500 patients are waiting more than nine months for orthopaedic surgery in Wales the article states – and that of course is just a tally of those who have actually made it as far as the waiting list. 

People like my father waited for months to be seen prior to that, and was pushed from one department to another before some bright spark eventually decided that yes his hip is indeed a mess and needs replacing.  That was early last December when he was told he was an urgent case. 

How many more people are out there in agony waiting to be put on a Labour waiting list? Yes we have an aging population, but they didn’t appear overnight.  There wasn’t a sudden alien invasion which deposited several thousand unexpected elderly ladies and gentlemen on the NHS doorstep. (Not as far as I am aware anyway)

But it’s ok – Labour have plans to tackle it, honest, yes really, this time, definitely…….

Double standards need exposing

Health will always be a priority for the Assembly 

So the new Health Minister is busy whingeing that health figure shave been misquoted and that “inaccurate accusations about our spending plans abound”

Perhaps this is a mark of the way in which Labour conduct business – so clouded in mystery that nobody can quite figure out what any of their spending figures mean.  The previous Minister was so nonchalant that she refused to investigate allegations form within the health Service that a billion pounds a year was being wasted.

David James in Thursday Echo had a very sensible viewpoint on the health and other cuts being inflicted upon Wales by Carwyn and his team.  As he put it Carwyn’s playing the blame game

“If we want Welsh politics to work, surely we need more people to call distortions like Carwyn’s cuts double standards. His cuts may be driven by the UK coalition-led policy of cutting the deficit, but his health cuts are most definitely Welsh Labour’s choice. In England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland more money is being pumped into health to counter the effect of inflation.

It’s a gamble. It’s a gamble that across the border council services will crumble, schools will suffer and Carwyn will be able to stand up and say: “The Welsh way was better.”

You can bet that if the dam bursts first in Wales’ NHS; surgeons, doctors and nurses revolt because of frozen pay while waiting lists grow and patient service suffers, he won’t say: “We got it wrong.” He’ll blame London and the Tories.

And you know what? If that does happen, most voters will buy it – unless people start pulling him up on it.”

Spot on, now if only some his colleagues would start doing just that…….

A&E times still off target

The BBC today reported that A&E waiting times miss targets with about 12% of patients having waited four hours or more to be seen after arriving in A&E last month.

Cwm Taf are reportedly better than Cardiff and The Vale - probably because a large number of patients are lost trying to find out where they are supposed to go for treatment.

It you visit Cwm Taf website there is a page entitled Choose well "It explains what each NHS service does, and when it should be used. Choosing Well means that you and your family will get the best treatment. It also allows busy NHS services to help the people who need them most."

It recommends the Minor Injury Units at Llwynypia and Aberdare for cuts, bites and sprains and states that "Most are open from early in the morning until late at night."   Click on the link and you will find the opening times for these two units is 9am to 4.30!   Late at night?

We heard anecdotal evidence during the Assembly campaign that the A&E department in the Royal Glamorgan is over stretched.  The minor injuries units, as reported in the local press last year, have had their hours cut back because of staff shortages at A&E.  Furthermore the A&E at the Royal Glamorgan is being put under pressure because staff are being sent to cover shortages at Prince Charles in Merthyr.

Still people in the area are obviously not concerned about the lack of services - most of them did vote for more of the same after all.

The deepest cuts

Wales faces deepest NHS cuts

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.