I missed this in April 2023. From BBC Wales:
Wales does not have a functioning NHS and people do not have faith in it, claims the head of a doctors’ union. Dr Iona Collins, of the British Medical Association in Wales, said people suffering with chest pain “don’t even know” if an ambulance will come.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65361431
OMG! There must be ‘angry’ calls for the Health Secretary’s head and extended coverage of quotes from opposition politicians. There isn’t. Not a word of it.
First the Welsh Health Secretary, Eluned Morgan, says ‘What we do know is the way that we count our waiting lists is very different from England.’
That is quite likely to be true but imagine the Scottish Health Secretary trying a line like that?
Where is the Shadow Health Minister, Angela Burns? Not a word of protest, presumably because Welsh Labour would blame the UK Government and BBC Wales would let them do so, unchallenged.
I asked you to imagine something similar in Scotland. You don’t need to.
When in September 2022, Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf was attacked over just the ‘worst ever A&E waiting times’, BBC Scotland had this:
Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said he was “outraged” by the government’s response.
Dr Gulhane, Scottish Conservative health spokesman, said he was “alarmed” by Mr Yousaf’s response to the record-low figures.
He pointed to the health secretary’s warning that people are staying in hospital an extra day longer on average because they were “sicker”.
“That’s because people are waiting so long to get seen by their GP,” Dr Gulhane said. “They’re waiting to get seen in outpatients. They’re not having their operations, they’re in more pain.
“Of course they’re going to be sicker. It’s because of the long waiting times.”
He called for the government to increase pensions to help increase the number of doctors and nurses in the NHS, as well as freeing up cash to recruit more staff.
Dr Gulhane said recruitment had done little to plug a gap of 6000 nursing vacancies.
He added: “The reason I’m outraged, the reason I’m so upset about this is because people are suffering.
“People are actually dying for no reason because they are waiting in A&E.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-62979228
How is the Welsh Labour Government responding? Well amongst other things, this:
Doctors have rejected a Welsh government offer of a 5% pay rise.
5% is less than what is being offered in England or Scotland and it is less than the DDRB (Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body) recommendation.
“It is the worst offer in the UK.”
In England doctors were offered a 6% rise in July while in Scotland junior doctors have been offered a pay increase of 17.5% over two years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66399552
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Labour in Wales always get a ‘Free ride’ with everyone who is given a platform to opine on news programmes and debate shows upon politics in the UK…..as if they, Labour government in Wales, do not exist…(mind you neither does NI get much of a mention either….other than when they, media and t’others, remember they, NI, presently have no ‘working’ government….due to DUP strop at NOT being elected as largest party in last election(s)….though that is NOT how tis framed via the BBC and other so called ‘news’ providers and commentators who are guests, as in political pundits…allegedly, on their programmes)
Meanwhile Scotland and it’s government is THE one that they ALL highlight as supposedly failing in public services but tis never mentioned in the context of a compare and contrast via their, Scottish government’s, performance against that of England’s under the Tory UK government…..why that would expose who was really failing…can’t have now that can we….
Obviously Labour in Wales are a PRO UK party thus they are not seen as a threat to their UK so they , who at times are the worse performing government via many public services, are left alone as there is no political capital to be had as far as the (non) Union is concerned…but perhaps voters should consider why Labour HQ are so reticent themselves to note what ‘successes’ their party have had via Wales…..why indeed…..almost as if there were NONE worthy enough to note.
Starmer , like previous Labour leaders, when challenged, in the HOC, via a Tory MP or the Tory PM upon the Labour government’s poor performance in Wales uses the excuse that tis the Tory UK government to blame for lack of funding etc…..but he, like other Labour leaders , never recognises that SAME factor impacts OUR government in Scotland too….how very partisan of him….but at least Mark Drakeford is honest enough to admit all devolved governments are under the same pressures via the Tory UK government….I bet Starmer wishes he, Drakeford, would shut up…..as inconvenient truths will NOT save their (non) Union……or win undeserved votes for Labour HQ.
Perhaps journalists should do their ACTUAL job and when someone states OUR NHS is bad….as in very very bad or what they call the WORSE in the UK….. they should then ASK that person to then ‘back up that statement’ via facts and figures and too compare the performances with OTHER government in the UK to ours….now that would be a novel idea….but as yet NOT one that they, journalists, are seemingly ever willing or keen to explore…I wonder why ????……NOT.
LikeLiked by 5 people
I’m often told by unionists on SM that being least worst is no recommendation when I compare Scotland to rUK. But they are the ones making the comparison – they are the ones who think the union is the answer to everthing and yet I’m not supposed to compare the two.
LikeLiked by 5 people
But let us not forget they are the WELSH Labour Party as opposed to the SCOTTISH Labour Party who are distinctly seperate to THE Labour Party in London with clear identities aren’t they? After all we would not wish to think they are the same.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What you see happening in Wales with the Uk Labour party at the helm, if Uk Labour EVER get near the helm again in Scotland, think ten times worse. They will destroy Scotland’s NHS, remove essential services, ruin education, impose prescription charges and uni tuition fees from day one, they will raise council tax to the hilt, and again they are quite capable of even sending £billions back to Westminster as they did before. They really will take a wrecking ball to all that the SNP have done to repair the damage of the BritNats’ decades and decades of neglect and damage to Scotland. The Labour party HQ’d in the next door country,
cannot ever be allowed to take Scotland down a dark path of terrible inequality, neglect, disenfranchisement and poverty. NO thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ArtyH – Never a truer word said. So many folks just seem unable to see it, unfortunately. Joe
LikeLike