PRESS RELEASE : Welsh Conservatives comment on Labour’s NHS excuses [December 2022]

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 18 December 2022.

Wales’ health minister has said she is “hopeful” ambulances would get to the most serious calls when paramedics plan to strike on Wednesday and the First Minister admitted that the Labour Government decided against a better pay offer for nurses to help protect NHS spending.

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

“It’s good that the First Minister has finally admitted that he and his Labour colleagues have made a political choice in not giving nurses a pay rise, but he still needs to find a solution to this strike so patients can get safe healthcare.

“However, nurses and ambulance workers in Scotland paused strike action when they sat down and received a different pay offer, so it is totally disingenuous for the First Minister to say there is nothing he can do and blame others for something that is entirely a devolved responsibility.

“I am also surprised that the Health Minister is so candid, only being hopeful that ambulances will actually reach the most serious situations. However, that seems to be the case even when there isn’t a strike on, with Wales recording its slowest response times on record in October.

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