CUTTING NHS WAITING LISTS

Long waiting lists for the NHS in Wales have become a big problem, with over 600,000 people waiting for treatment. Many have to wait more than a year, and things are only getting worse. Plaid Cymru has a five-point plan to help fix this issue and make sure people get the care they need.

1. Local Treatment Centres (to get people on waiting lists treated faster)

Emergency care often takes resources away from planned treatments, causing long waits. Plaid Cymru would set up temporary treatment centre in existing hospitals, each focused on a specific type of care. By reorganising staff and using underused hospital spaces, we could reduce waiting lists by up to 30% without needing new buildings or extra staff.

 

2. Speed Up Referrals

The referral process in Wales' NHS is slow and inefficient, partly due to a shortage of GPs. Plaid Cymru plans to address this by creating a special team to   speed up referrals and quickly match patients with the right doctors. This would remove unnecessary cases from waiting lists, and support doctors with weekend approvals to free up space. This could clear up to 60% of backlogs in some areas, like dermatology.

 

3. Make Health Boards Work Together

We’ll make sure hospitals share resources and work as a team so patients can be treated faster, no matter where they live. Wales' health boards aren't working together as well as they should, leading to poor coordination and wasted resources. Plaid Cymru would introduce emergency laws to make health boards work together better and share resources more effectively.

 

4. Better Waiting List Planning

Plaid Cymru plans to improve how waiting lists are managed by setting staffing levels before treatments are planned, based on successful models like those in Aneurin Bevan. We’ll create national guidelines for managing waiting lists and use a team-based approach for patient assessments, such as whole-body check-ups by GPs to spot conditions early.

 

5. Use Technology to Help Patients

Plaid Cymru plans to use technology to improve care for patients on waiting lists. Many don’t need surgery but need better support to manage their conditions. We’ll use digital tools to help patients track and manage their care, and allow doctors to monitor them remotely. The Executive Triage Service will help sort through waiting lists and make sure resources are used efficiently, providing faster care and reducing unnecessary delays. This will create a support layer between GPs and specialists, filling a gap in current care.

A FIRST MINISTER FAILING WALES

The State of NHS shows Eluned Morgan “failing” as First Minister of Wales – Plaid Cymru  2025 will be “crucial year” as Plaid highlights its vision for leading Wales – Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth

 

The state of the NHS shows that Eluned Morgan is “failing” as First Minister of Wales, Plaid Cymru has said.

 

Speaking at the start of the new Senedd term, Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said 2025 would be a “crucial” year for Wales ahead of the Senedd elections next year.

 

The Plaid Cymru Leader said that Plaid Cymru would, over the next term, publish further details on its vision for leading Wales – beginning with a plan to bring NHS waiting times down.

 

The party will outline further details on its vision for government over next few months.

 

Mr ap Iorwerth strongly criticised the record of the Labour First Minister, formerly the Health Minister, on missed NHS targets and said that the government had failed to deliver the changes needed to fix the NHS in Wales.

 

Waiting times hit another record high late last year with over 800,000 hospital patient pathways.

 

The party’s health spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor previously announced plans to reform the way the NHS is run in November last year – proposals that were well received by stakeholders.

 

Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth MS said,

 

“The new year brings opportunities, but Wales is facing the same old challenges: wages not keeping up with bills, public services struggling, HS2 billions still missing, and an NHS, despite the best efforts of staff, overstretched and at capacity.

 

“A quarter of patients are currently waiting over eight hours in A&E, hospital waiting lists have topped 800,000, ambulance services are in crisis, and GP surgeries are closing. This is unacceptable.

 

“As Health minister, Eluned Morgan promised no patient would wait over 12 months for treatment by spring—a promise already broken by virtue of the fact she’s set a new target of bringing two year waits down to 8,000 by April – and based on December’s numbers even those figures are going in the wrong direction.

 

“No matter how many times this Labour government tries to reincarnate itself as being a government of delivery, it continues to fail the NHS workforce and its patients.

 

“This is a failure of delivery by a failing First Minister.

 

“2025 will be a crucial year for Wales. This year can be the beginning of the fresh start that Wales needs – with Plaid Cymru at the helm.

 

“We don’t believe this is as good as it gets. Over the next months, we will give further detail on our ambitious offer of change to the people of Wales: better public services, an improved NHS, an economy that creates good jobs, and a government that will be unrelenting in fighting for fairness for our communities.

 

“To those who want to see Wales put first, who feel let down by Labour, and are looking for an alternative to division, look to Plaid Cymru at next year’s Senedd elections.

 

“Together, we can build a fairer, more hopeful Wales and deliver the future we deserve.”

- ENDS - 

FAIR FUNDING IS NO BIG ASK

Fair funding for Wales isn’t a big ask, is it? Yet according to Labour in Wales , it seems like it is. Their latest budget doesn’t deliver fairness—it’s just papering over the cracks of 25 years of Labour mismanagement. While our NHS struggles and our economy stalls, yet Labour continues to deny Wales what it’s owed. From a fair funding deal, £4 billion in HS2 funding to control over our own natural resources, we’re left short-changed time and time again.

Labour in Wales’s proposed budget its both underwhelming and unambitious, this budget won’t even touch the sides of the crisis facing our NHS and councils. This doesn’t take into account the impact of Labour’s national insurance contributions on our public services. And more than anything, this is a direct result of 25 years of Labour in Wales mismanagement and an unfair funding deal that leaves Wales seriously shortchanged.

Instead of offering fairness for Wales, Labour in Wales have decided to intimidate opposition parties into backing its budget - which is incredibly disappointing. Giving Labour in Wales a second chance means more of the same. In 2026, we must be more resolute than ever that Plaid Cymru is the real alternative for a new government that will offer a better direction for Wales.

 

The Labour in Wales budget fails to meet the needs of Wales’ struggling public services and continues to deny us a fair funding settlement. Plaid Cymru is the only party fighting for fairness, offering an ambitious alternative with long-term solutions to improve our NHS and grow the economy.

While Labour in Wales are boasting this is a good budget for Wales but the reality on the ground tells a very different story. It’s time for a fresh start with a Plaid Cymru government. We will put Wales’ needs first and deliver ambitious, long-term solutions to fix our NHS and grow our economy. 

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

Over this weekend, once again communities across Wales which were hit hard by devastating floods following Storm Bert ( resulting in two landslides, damage to homes and businesses, and one known fatality ) now face Storm Darragh. Last week residents were taken by surprise with inadequate warnings and failing flood defences - particularly in the south valleys - but also in and around Newport and Monmouthshire.

While there is not much we can do about the weather, much of the flooding, chaos and the cleanup are not inevitable.  Labour in Wales initiated cuts to flood prevention alongside their refusal to learn lessons from previous storms - a decision that has left our communities vulnerable to (now much more commonplace) extreme weather. 

Plaid Cymru is calling for immediate emergency funding to help those impacted by the flooding alongside long term investment in resilient infrastructure and actual government accountability – not crowd funders. Protecting high risk communities and addressing coal tip safety are also urgently needed. 

After 25 years, Labour has utterly failed Wales and taken people for granted. No fairness from London - from the £4 billion owed in HS2 cash to fair funding to control over our natural resources. And no ambition from Cardiff – just more decline in our NHS, economy, and public services and our nation needs a fresh start. 

Giving Labour in Wales a second chance after the mess they have made is not an option, to put Labour in Wales back into power in May 2026 simply means more of the same. Wales deserves a fresh start with a new Plaid Cymru government.

Only Plaid Cymru will give Wales a fresh start. After 25 years of Labour in power, we have the longest waiting lists on record, falling educational standards and an economy not realising its potential. It’s time for a new Plaid Cymru government, full of ambition and energy, to improve our NHS and schools, create jobs and grow the economy - putting Wales first to build a fairer society for all. Roll on May 2026.

NO DETAIL ON PLAN TO REDUCE WAITING LISTS

In their conference in Llandudno yesterday, Labour in Wales announced additional funding to tackle high NHS waiting lists, but there was no detail on Labour’s plan to bring down waiting lists. 

In response to this announcement, Plaid Cymru’s spokesman on Health & Social Care, Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, said:

 

“Announcements that are heavy on rhetoric but light on detail are becoming commonplace within Labour party conferences. While bringing down waiting lists should be a priority for any government, the absence of a plan on how to achieve this from the Labour party in Wales – beyond throwing more money at the problem – means many people in Wales will remain waiting far too long for NHS treatment.

 

“We need to know exactly how the Labour Government in Wales intends to bring down waiting lists, but the increase in patient pathways in Wales for 7 consecutive months suggests they don’t know themselves. Labour have had 25 years to deliver a health service fit to serve the people of Wales, and they’ve failed to do so. It’s time for a fresh start and a fresh vision for the Welsh NHS under Plaid Cymru’s leadership.”

 

- END - 

REMEMBERANCE 2024

Another remembrance Sunday has passed and at 11:00 am on Monday 11th November) it was one hundred and sixth years to the moment when the Great War - at least on the Western Front, when the fighting was brought to an end with the armistice literally at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day. 

A few years ago we reached that point in time, where there were no more living veterans from the First World War, yet people will still pause to publically and privately remember the veterans and survivors of more historic and more recent conflicts and particularly those who never came back. 

The 947,023 military casualties (with 744,702 of them from these islands) between 1914 and 1918 (by way of comparison with the 264,000 military dead from 1939 - 1945) should still shock us even now.  

The killing continued through the morning of the 11th November - with the  French soldiers who were killed on the morning of the 11th November 1918 having the dates on their deaths recorded as the 10th November rather than the 11th. In Mons where the first world war in the West began and ended for the BEF there are memorials to the first and last casualties on the Western Front. 

My family like many others in Wales (and elsewhere on these islands and across the Commonwealth) had relatives who served and survived and also relatives who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars and other subsequent conflicts. 

My lost relatives (and their missing descendants) from time to time, periodically play on my mind, particularly at times like this - my maternal grandmother’s lost two brothers in the First World War and its aftermath. Her elder brother was a regular soldier, who wrote home and told them not to allow his younger brother to join up and to come out to France. 

Sadly it was, however, too late as the younger brother had already joined and was killed in action in 1918 and is buried near Amiens. My paternal great grandfather (and my grandfather) both served in the First World War and survived but came back as deeply changed men (as did many).

As someone, coming from a relatively large extended close family, I am of an age, were I grew up with a generation of older relatives a number of whom had seen active service in the second world war in the Navy, Army, Air Force and the merchant navy.

They like many from those generations rarely talked about their actual experiences of the war, and then perhaps save only occasionally to those who they had served with, and who would have understood, because they had survived similar experiences. Younger relatives have also served in more recent more modern conflicts around the world and fortunately have come back. 

As I have said before I have absolutely no problem remembering those who lost their lives and the courage, comradeship and their endurance of those who served in the First World War and other more modern conflicts (and not necessarily those who served in the armed forces). 

I have no time whatsoever is rose tinted sentimental nostalgic flag waving foot-tapping pap. As has been said elsewhere, soldiers don’t go into conflict aiming to die - not for the politicians, for patriotism or even us - but they often can end up dying with their friends and comrades with whom they served. 

The first world war was the first conflict when real concerted efforts were made to remember and record all of those who had fallen - particularly because of the decision (taken for a variety of reasons) not to bring the fallen home for burial. 

One consequence is that far too many literally still lie in corners of foreign fields, are names on war memorials, faded photographs, faded memories or too many literally have no grave at all. 

Speaking of another bloody conflict across the Atlantic, the, US President Abraham Lincoln noted at Gettysburg the fallen had given their last full measure of devotion. And that what we do or say does not really matter in comparison with what the fallen (and those who survived) had done. 

It may be more true today that the world will little note the current crop of political leader’s lyrical wittering on conflict (both recent or older) or long remember them. What we should never forget what the former soldiers and veterans did and what they went through and too many still live with. 

We should not just cherish their memory but should ensure that after their military service they remain fully honoured as should be the military covenant. Never again should it ever be found that dead heroes are cheaper to honour than live ones. 

SAYING NO TO THE WESTERN GATEWAY

It never quite goes away, at a recent Westminster event, the Western Gateway popped up again to be endorsed by Labour in Wales local representatives. Back in November 2020, the Labour in Wales Welsh Government’s revealed the top down plan to develop Wales’ economy pretty much effectively aims to turn our country into ‘Western England’.  

Plaid Cymru warned that the National Development Framework will ‘split Wales’ and is simply about ‘securing crumbs from the UK Government’s table’. The regional development plan which was put forward by the Welsh Government, covered the next 20 years or so, and sought to identify where nationally significant developments should take place, national and regional growth areas, what infrastructure and services are needed and how Wales can contribute to the fight against climate change.

In Wales, until we really run our own affairs, we face some interesting if somewhat stark choices, we can choose the then Alun Cairns model of Tory-inspired Western England or the Labour in Wales’s deeply flawed vision of our future. Labour in Wales’s regional map would “drives a wedge” into Wales, and ignore the “pressing” issue of lack of north-south connectivity, and neglects some of those parts of Wales needing regeneration and development.

The Welsh Government simply replaced the four-region model with a different approach focused on distributing wealth, power and investment equitably across the whole of Wales by targeting intervention and growth to the areas in most need.

What’s was particularly depressing was that Labour’s proposal might as well have been a carbon copy of the then Tory-inspired model of entrenched economic dependency. The four-region approach was modelled on the UK Westminster Government’s Growth Deal areas. Future Wales was more about the future of the Northern Powerhouse, the Bristol Western Gateway and the Midlands Engine than it was the future of Wales.

The plan simply offered an economic plan that was largely based upon securing crumbs from somebody else’s table, rather than building up Wales’ economy in its own right. Instead of offering a vision that brings Wales together, Labour in Wales basically agreed to serve Boris Johnson’s agenda (and Wales) on a plate without even the asking. 

The new / old lack of vision pushed the north and the south of our country even further apart and neglected the real and pressing need for improved north-south connectivity. As if that wasn’t enough it also neglected some of those parts of Wales that were (and are) most in need of regeneration and development, namely the western seaboard and the valleys of the south. 

This flawed approach would not change the UK and Welsh Governments failure to distribute wealth and growth equally across Wales. That said even now it is still not too late for a  Labour-in-Wales Welsh Government to replace the four-region model that was proposed in Future Wales 2040 with amore rational approach that actually focuses on making Wales a connected, sustainable, prosperous and self-sufficient nation in every sense. We can all live in hope…

Now sadly, none of this is new - the other unionist / centralist party in Cymru / Wales, the Conservatives in Cymru / Wales, with a few honourable exceptions have never been happy with the simple idea of devolution actually delivering anything beyond simple inadequate administration, deep down they would probably like to get rid of it (along with the very idea of Wales). 

Here in Wales we have all seen and experienced over the years what can perhaps be best described as the Westminster wobble (by Red, Blue /Orange and Blue governments) in relation to the commitment to complete the electrification of the Great Western line to Swansea, the failure to develop the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, and the threat to cancel promised public borrowing powers after the proposed M4 Relief road was dropped.

Boris’s (the then PM) mutterings about intervening to overrule the Labour in Wales Government's decision not to build the M4 relief road, or the lead Financial Times article (Monday 13.07.2020) about Westminster’s plans to retain control of state aid at the expense of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, were simply attempts to gain short term electoral advantage. 

Despite their electoral success in December 2019,  Boris and his ilk, were part of what was probably the most narrow elitist English of Westminster governments anytime since the 1700’s, the then Westminster Conservative had a serious barely concealed disdain for the concept of devolution and barely concealed contempt for Wales itself, and that’s was before you got onto their hostility towards Scotland and their complete ignorance about Ireland 

Labour in Wales’s lack of vision in relation to economic development in Wales firmly routed in a belief in the union combined with a famous and and mistaken hope that the Labour cavalry in Westminster will eventually come riding to the rescue. 

we all know that they didn’t do much between 1997 and 2010, and with Labour in Westminster representative (in Wales) consistently voting against or abstaining on the transfer or strengthening of devolved powers to Wales - which certainly suggests that nothing much is going to change in the future after Labour in Westminster's electoral success in July 2024. 

Honestly it should be enough to make people wonder just exactly who’s interests we are being governed in?  For our SE our future, if left to other people’s choices is as part of the Western Gateway (a revamped version of the old Severnside Agenda, or Greater Bristol by any other name). What we are looking at is not so much a case of for Wales see England, more like for our SE, literally see Western England. It's time to say no to the Western Gateway and time for a change in Wales - roll of 2026.