“We owe it to our NHS staff now to relieve the pressure” – Plaid Cymru five year plan to resource, repay and support our NHS

Responding to the news that 549,353 people were awaiting treatment or surgery in NHS Wales as of February, Plaid Cymru’s Dr Dai Lloyd MS said,

“This past year has made us all value our health and care services as never before. We have seen for ourselves the selflessness of the staff who have gone the extra mile day after day after day to keep us safe, to save lives and to care for the most vulnerable. But we have also witnessed the frailties and unsustainability of those services, the lack of investment that led to an overdependence on the goodwill and sheer dedication of the health and care workforce.

“NHS waiting times were already unacceptably long even prior to the pandemic and have now been exacerbated by Covid.

“In order to ensure the service is resourced and has the capacity to provide healthcare to the thousands of people waiting, a Plaid Cymru Government has a five-year plan to recruit 4,000 nurses, 1,000 doctors and 1,000 allied health professionals, to deliver new diagnostic centres for cancer and other conditions to ensure early treatment, and to create a new sustainability, a new robustness, in a new and transformed National Health and Care Service.

“We owe it to our NHS staff now to relieve the pressure, to repay them for their commitment in our hour of need, to give them the support they need to do what they are trained to do: To care.”