PRESS RELEASE : “Crisis, what crisis?” – Labour health minister MIA [November 2022]

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 25 November 2022.

Labour’s health minister in Cardiff Bay has been accused of being missing in action at a point of severe NHS pressure.

Baroness Morgan has only made three statements in the Senedd since the summer recess ended in September, one of the lowest total for any minister. No further statements are scheduled for her for the rest of the year.

It comes as the Royal College of Nursing prepares to strike before Christmas at a time when over three-quarters of a million people are on an NHS waiting list, the worst ambulance response times on record, and the longest A&E waits in Britain.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said:

“Given the parlous state of the NHS following an attitude of delay and deterioration, I really am surprised how little we are seeing of the Health Minister.

“It is no wonder we have to drag them into the Chamber though topical questions and opposition debates to get answers when we get so little proactive planning to scrutinise.

“When we consider it was the last health minister who said it would be ‘foolish’ to public an NHS recovery plan during the pandemic and this one is refusing to negotiate pay with nurses, we should not be surprised to see the record waits patients and staff have to deal with daily.

“Labour need to get a grip on the NHS and stop breaking all the wrong records.”

Morgan’s three statements put her behind the ministers for Education, Climate Change, Economy, and Finance and Local Government. She is equal with the Minister for Social Justice and the Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport.

Latest NHS figures show:

• 23% of the population on a waiting list, but the number of people waiting over two years is now 57,284 despite such waits having been virtually eliminated in England and Scotland.
• 1-in-4 Welsh patients waited over a year for treatment, but only 1-in-20 do so in England.
• The median waiting time in Wales was 21.8 weeks compared to 14 in England.
• A third (33.4%) of patients had to wait over the four-hour target to be seen in A&E last month. In England and Scotland, the equivalent figure in both was 31%.
• Only 48% of responses to immediately life-threatening calls arrived within eight minutes – the worst rate on record (beating last month’s 50%). The target of 65% of red-calls reaching their patient within eight minutes has not been reached now for over two years.
• Two-thirds (66.7%) of amber call patients – which include strokes – took over an hour to reach, with only 19% arriving within 30 minutes.