Labour Health Ministers have been running NHS Wales for 17 years.
The pressure on our hospitals, patients and staff is unprecedented.
Despite a 26 week referral to treatment waiting time target, the most recently published official monthly figures show that 26,342 patients, including 6,202 in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, waited more than 36 weeks to start treatment in Wales - and that 3294 patients, including 1151 in Betsi Cadwaladr and almost 1 in 10 in Wrexham Maelor, waited over 12 hours in A&E. The target for both is zero.
The 2013 Wales Audit Office Report on Health Finances found that although there had been real-term increases to health budgets in the other UK nations, only the devolved NHS in Wales had faced a real-terms reduction since 2010, which it described as unprecedented in UK history.
Welsh Conservatives have consistently called for more money to be invested into NHS Wales and a Welsh Conservative Government would protect NHS Wales, ensuring real term health budget increases and an end to hospital closures.
All existing emergency departments would be maintained and minor injury units in community hospitals axed by the Labour Welsh Government would be re-established to relieve pressure on our emergency departments and provide more convenient access to patients.
In addition, a £20 million Community Hospital Development Fund would be established to expand the role of community hospitals across Wales.
Speaking as Labour Health Minister in March 2010, Edwina Hart said “I am not aware of any threats to community hospitals across Wales”.
In reality, I had established ‘CHANT Cymru’ (Community Hospitals Acting Nationally Together), which successfully campaigned for suspension of Labour’s plans to close community hospitals in 2007.
However, when Labour returned to single party power in Cardiff in 2011, they again pushed ahead with their community hospital closure programme –
Including Llangollen, Flint, Prestatyn, and Blaenau Ffestiniog, and the loss of Minor Injury Units in Newtown, Tenby, Colwyn Bay, Chirk, Ruthin and the Rhyl/Prestatyn area.
As I stated in the Assembly three years ago, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board boycotted the open public meetings about their closure proposals and instead funded a highly managed consultation which campaigners said did not reflect the true feelings of people in the region, dismissed thousands who signed petitions, blatantly manipulated numbers in order to arrive at the result it set out to achieve and ignored the majority expressing opposition in the wider consultation.
When current Health Minister Mark Drakeford stated “the decisions to close the community hospitals at Flint, Llangollen, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Prestatyn were supported by the local community health council”, he failed to mention that North Wales Community Health Council had written to him expressing concerns about the robustness of the information provided by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and which they used to inform their decision making process”.
Dozens of Community beds were lost, despite bed occupancy levels of 95% and above.
The GP who set up the North Wales pilot Enhanced Care at Home scheme with the Health Board, stated that: “This will bring a service that is currently frequently gridlocked, further to its knees” and that “a central part of the proposed shake-up of health services – providing more care in people’s homes – won’t fill the gap left by shutting community hospitals”. This Welsh Labour Government ignored the Flint Referendum in which 99.3% voted in favour of returning in-patient beds to Flint – and then ignored the Blaenau Ffestiniog referendum where an overwhelming majority voted in favour of returning beds there.
At packed meetings at Flint Town Hall, we heard several tragic stories about local people already affected by their hospital closure.
In deference to Welsh Labour policy, the Health Board state that Flint patients needing Community Hospital care will be admitted to Holywell hospital - but when I visited Holywell Hospital, staff told me “extra investment in our local community hospitals, such as Holywell, and NHS community beds in Flint, would take pressure off our general hospitals, help tackle the A&E crisis and enable the health board to use its resources more efficiently”.
As the head of the NHS in England said:
‘Smaller community hospitals should play a bigger role, particularly in the care of older patients’.
Welsh Conservatives will not only require Health and Social Care providers to collaborate and to support independent living – but also re-establish step-down care beds in the community and introduce a right to respite for carers, working with frontline health professionals to build a proper network of community-based health services.