PLAID CYMRU: LABOUR HAS A LACK OF GRIP ON THE HEALTH SERVICE, AS AUDIT WALES PUBLISHES DAMNING REPORT

Plaid Cymru has responded to Audit Wales’s audit of NHS bodies’ 2022-23 accounts, which found that six of the seven Health Boards failed to meet their statutory duty to break even over a three-year period. As a result, the Auditor General qualified his regularity opinion for those bodies as failing this duty means that the bodies have exceeded their authority to spend.

Plaid Cymru said that the news is ‘further evidence of the Labour Welsh governments continued lack of grip of the Health Service,’ and that it was a ‘dire verdict compounded by the fact that waiting times are unacceptably long in Wales.’

Plaid Cymru’s Health and Care spokesperson, Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, said:

“The Auditor’s report paints a deeply worrying picture of the financial wellbeing of our health boards.

 “This is further evidence of the Labour Welsh Government’s continued lack of grip of the Health Service, and today’s dire verdict is compounded by the fact that waiting times are unacceptably long in Wales.

 “A further increase in agency spending, bringing it to £325 million across NHS Wales, and a tenfold increase in agency spend within the ambulance service proves that there is still a lack of workforce planning.

“As a consequence more and more money is going into the profits of private companies, rather than front line services.

 “This Labour Government claims that it likes collaborative working with social partners, but that collaboration is a one-way street as far as the Labour Government is concerned. They need to listen to the workforce and plan ahead more effectively. Greater flexibility and better training opportunities within work time is essential across the board if they are to retain more of the excellent staff that we already have in our NHS.”