Mirror article criticised for erasing devolution
Following the Daily Mirror’s article today which criticises the NHS, the Welsh Conservatives are accusing the paper of erasing 24 years of devolution.
Since 1999, the Welsh NHS has been run from Cardiff by Labour-led Welsh Governments and yet in their interview with a Swansea-based former nurse, there is no mention of Labour or the Welsh Government running the NHS in Wales for nearly a quarter of a century.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Russell George MS said:
Labour is the only government in Britain to cut an NHS budget.
“Labour is the only government in Britain to cut an NHS budget. First in 2012 and now, as we are struggling with historic inhuman waiting lists, they’ve subjected the Welsh NHS – on its 75th birthday – to another real terms cut.
“Let’s not forget for every £1 spent on healthcare in England, the Welsh Government receives £1.20 yet only £1.05 of that makes it to the Welsh NHS.
“The NHS across Britain faces challenges, but our Welsh NHS is an outlier that faces unique difficulties, like 2-year waits for treatment that have been virtually eliminated elsewhere in the UK, but still stand at over 30,000 here in Wales.
“On the institution’s 75th birthday, we should be looking more to replicate best practices like the success of surgical hubs, not differentiating the service here in Wales from the rest of the UK for the sake of it as Mark Drakeford does and reminding those who have forgotten that the health service in Wales is run by Labour Ministers in the Senedd.”
