First Minister celebrates achievements of NHS Wales

The First Minister will today (3 Feb) take on critics of the NHS in Wales, highlighting the collaborative approach between the Welsh Government and clinicians, and their shared commitment to world class quality of treatment for all.

Carwyn Jones will deliver the keynote speech at today’s Welsh NHS Confederation annual conference where he will reflect on and celebrate the achievements of the NHS over the last five years – as well as looking to the future.

He will also contrast the stability of the Welsh NHS with the ‘complex, baffling and opaque’ health reforms in England.

The First Minister will say:

“Despite all the challenges facing it, the NHS in Wales is a robust, resilient organisation.  Over the past five years, it has been tested operationally by the UK-wide and Westminster-driven austerity, and by those who would run it down for their own advantage.

“But it has prevailed, and the number of those with cause to be grateful for its care and treatment has continued to grow.

“Over the last five years, we’ve shown our commitment to the NHS, and remain committed to the simple idea that it will always be there for each of Wales’ three million people when they need it most.”

More than nine out of ten patients in the Welsh NHS consistently rate their care as good or excellent, and Mr Jones will say “this is the best antidote to those who would systematically run the service down for their own ends”.

The First Minister will also contrast the recent images of junior doctors in England in open revolt, standing outside hospitals with placards, while doctors in Wales remained on the wards treating patients.

This, he will say, demonstrates the benefits to both staff and patients of the Welsh approach to health – collaboration not confrontation.

Mr Jones will tell the conference:

“Our philosophy for our NHS is fundamentally this: It is paid for from the public purse, to deliver the public good. It is accountable to Ministers, and citizens know where they stand.

“For all the myriad of complex and technologically advanced treatments it now offers, its basic structure is relatively simple and easy to understand.

“In England, Ministers have embarked on a reform so dizzying in its complexity, so baffling in its structure and so opaque in terms of its accountability that patients there could be forgiven for wondering who – if anyone – is actually in charge.

“I won’t attempt to explain any further. I’ll say only this. On this dividing line, I, and I expect the vast majority of the people in this room, are very happy to be on our side.

“Let me be very clear – top down reorganisation is not on the agenda whilst I have a say in the matter.”