England’s newest health statistics ‘bleak’, but Wales worse
New health figures for England in June have been released, and the Royal College of Nursing has called the situation ‘bleak’.
In Wales, statistics for the Labour-run health system are significantly worse and have been for a long time.
For example, the number of people waiting more than a year for treatment is 331,623 in England but a massive 171,409 in Wales – with England having around 18 times the population of Wales.
A total of 8,028 people in England were waiting more than two years to start routine hospital treatment at the end of May, but in Wales this number is a staggering 68,032 – a rise of nearly 900% in one year.
A total of 72% of patients in England were seen within four hours at A&Es last month, with the most recent figures for Wales showing only 65.1% of people being seen within four hours at A&E – the worst on record.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, Russell George MS, said:
“It’s right that health systems across the UK are held to account and the public can see these performance figures.
“As a result of Labour’s mismanagement, the health service in Wales is significantly worse than England despite Labour ministers having more money to spend on public services.
“Labour have been failing the Welsh people for 23 years, and instead of improving our health service they want to put 36 more politicians in the Welsh Parliament.
“I’ve made lots of suggestions to Ministers on how to improve the health service, such as introducing regional surgical hubs which will help tackle the NHS backlog.”