Plaid Leader sets sights on government with vision for healthier Wales

Plaid leader promises a government with both immediate impact and a vision for long-term change toward a healthier, wealthier Wales

Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth MS will today address his party’s Annual Conference in Cardiff, criticising 25 years of Labour leadership and spelling out his vision for a healthier and wealthier Wales.

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS will set out Plaid Cymru’s commitment to “break the cycle of short-term thinking which shortchanges Wales”. On key issues of the economy, education and health, he’ll promise action to implement immediate improvement but set out the need for longer term change that Wales desperately needs.

In health that means a pledge that under a Plaid Cymru Government, spending on preventative health measures will increase every year.

He will also announce that a Plaid Cymru Cabinet would include a Minister for Public Health, “ensuring a truly national mission of creating healthier lives which in turn deliver substantial savings.”

Describing the NHS as “born on Labour’s watch” with a promise of a “rebirth under a Plaid Cymru government” Rhun ap Iorwerth MS is expected to say:

“My government will break the cycle of short term thinking which shortchanges Wales.

Unlike Eluned Morgan, I will acknowledge that some things are  broken but more importantly I’ll be determined that nothing is beyond repair.

My government will not consider issues in isolation. Silo working helps no one when one decision so often affects another.

Unlocking our economic potential will need major improvements in education attainment, but another bedrock of a healthy economy is a well Wales – its people active in body and mind.

This year, as waiting lists grew – Labour for some inexplicable reason cut the amount it spends on preventative health policies.

Friends, this is short-term thinking with long term pain guaranteed. It feeds the problem as opposed to solving it, putting further pressure on front line staff, filling our hospitals with ever sicker patients.

Plaid Cymru will reverse the thinking, it’s something I’m determined to do , ensuring the NHS is fit for its centenary celebrations and beyond.”

The Plaid leader will launch a new approach to preventatoive health as part of wider NHS changes by saying:

“For too long, Labour’s priority has been managing people’s pain but I want to keep people healthy and I can announce that in the first 100 days of a Plaid Cymru government we will bring forward a new budget – based on the principles of a healthier, wealthier Wales – with a promise that spending on preventative health measures will increase every year.

No more sticking plaster, no more blaming the individual, no more passing the buck.

This is grown-up government – taking responsibility, empowering people and protecting the NHS.

And we have an enormous task ahead of us. On improving the NHS estate, we’ll go further than the last 8 Labour Health Ministers, clearing the emergency maintenance backlogs over the duration of the next Senedd term. Only this week, a critical incident was declared at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend because of serious long-term damage to its roof. We have to have an NHS estate fit for purpose!

We’ll introduce a target focused cancer contract for every patient and reform the governance of the NHS, bringing standards back where they should be and waiting lists down.

And with a new Minister for Public Health, we’ll put the ‘N’ back in the NHS – ensuring a truly national mission of creating healthier lives which in turn deliver substantial savings.

Our treasured National Health Service – born on Labour’s watch, given a rebirth by the Plaid Cymru government I will lead.”