Should we borrow from Labour’s rhetoric in Scotland: ‘NHS staff do an incredible job in caring for us but they are let down by Labour time and time again’;  an ‘out of touch and hopeless Labour government presiding over a crisis in the Welsh NHS’;  “… Labour’s record on the NHS in Wales is one of abject failure”?

By stewartb

BBC Wales is reporting what its journalist found on a visit to an NHS Wales hospital in Swansea: ‘My eye-opening day at overrun A&E department’ (BBC News website January 23, 2025). The article reveals the poor state of a hospital in a health system long the responsibility of the British Labour Party governing in Cardiff.

As you read on, imagine how a similar story would be reported in Scotland. No doubt, BBC Scotland – without context, perspective or comparative analysis – would have readers/listeners (i.e. voters) believe that NHS Scotland is exceptionally ‘bad’. And more, the parochial politicisation of the NHS in Scotland by the British Labour Party – aggregated and amplified by BBC Scotland and others in the mainstream media – would have the electorate believe the Scottish Government is wholly to blame and therefore an exceptionally bad government.

What’s going on and who’s to blame in Wales?

Back to the BBC News website and the article on its main Wales page (but not in its politics section) – ‘My eye-opening day at overrun A&E department’. It’s a lengthy, detailed piece describing what was found during a day-long visit to Swansea’s Morriston Hospital. It includes these observations:

• Thursday AM: eight ambulances are queuing up outside, 85 patients waiting for a bed;  one patient been sitting on a hard plastic chair for 44 hours

• one patient ‘.. has been on a trolley for four days with cellulitis in his legs’

• one patient ‘who’s been on a trolley since Monday while being treated for a blood clot’ (the BBC Wales journalist’s research was conducted on Thursday)

• statements from nursing staff: ‘admits he is no longer able to give the fundamentals of care to all patients’ and ‘the challenge feels insurmountable’

• ‘we learn one patient has been waiting on a trolley in the emergency department for 139 hours – more than five-and-a-half days’

• statement from a medic: the situation is causing “.. a huge amount of stress and moral injury to some of the staff”.

Is Swansea hospital typical?

All of this is will be of little surprise to anyone tracking A&E performance across NHS Wales as a whole. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) issued a press statement on NHS Wales as recently as January 23 (with my emphasis):

‘Performance data for the NHS in Wales – published today (23 January 2025) shows that there are serious issues across the board.

‘Waits for elective care have reached a level never seen before, the percentage of people accessing urgent cancer treatment within the target period has dropped again and for those needing an ambulance or attending an Emergency Department the picture is as dire.

‘The data reveals that in December 2024 for Emergency Departments in major hospitals:

• ‘The percentage of patients seen within four hours dropped to 54.1%, well below the target of 95%
• ’10,234 patients waited more than 12 hours for care, which is nearly one in six people’ (i.e. c.16.6%)
• ‘And when it came to ambulance calls, only 47.6% of “red calls”, defined as the most serious emergency cases, were received within eight minutes’

(TuS regulars will have seen lots of well-referenced, authoritative statistical evidence demonstrating that NHS Scotland has the best waiting times performance amongst the four UK nations – and has had for a long time.)

As an aside, the same RCEM press release also has this: ‘Earlier today former First Minister Mark Drakeford was criticised for claiming that “Wales has too many hospitals and too many beds.” Mr Drakeford is now the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in the British Labour Party government in Cardiff.

BBC Wales reporting

Following the catalogue of observations by the BBC Wales journalist at the Swansea hospital, the BBC article then has two substantial sections (essentially ‘explainers’) which its readers may have found helpful. These are the sub-headings:

1. ‘Things the hospital is doing to try and overcome the issues’; and
2. ‘What’s causing the problem? Analysis by Health Correspondent Owain Clarke’.

In the second part, the BBC Wales Correspondent tells us: ‘Although I’ve visited many A&Es over the years – the scenes we witnessed at Morriston were some of the most striking I’ve ever encountered.’

The Correspondent then goes on to set out likely causes:

• ‘the huge and growing health demands of an ageing, but also relatively sick and poor population’

• ‘It’s no surprise that efforts are focused on preventing, where possible, patients from coming in or getting them out of hospital more quickly afterwards. But both little things (the patient without keys) and big things (an infection outbreak at a nearby elderly care hospital) can throw spanners in the works’

• ‘There’s also an appeal to families to help get loved ones home if they can – even if it’s inconvenient – as only a handful of extra discharges on any day can prevent a difficult day from becoming a horrendous one
• ‘Don’t forget either – the pressures on the NHS are made worse by deep-seated challenges in social care’.

The article closes with quotes from a spokesperson for the Labour Welsh government, referring to recent additional funding and “encouraging” results of a recent initiative. Some countering positive framing?

Those familiar with BBC Scotland’s reporting of the NHS may find what follows remarkable given the nature of the BBC Wales piece: nowhere in the article is there mention of political opponents! There are no condemnatory quotes from trade union/professional bodies. The only ‘politicisation’ of a negative nature comes from a member of the public: ‘politicians need to better understand the situation’.

If the observations in the Morriston Hospital had been made in an NHS Scotland facility, based on track record, Labour’s health spokesperson in Holyrood would have been using alarmist language to lay culpability directly and wholly on the Scottish Government. And BBC Scotland would have made sure we read/heard – i.e. leaving us in no doubt – where Labour and others wanted voters to assign all blame!

And more ….

The BBC News website in its Wales section has this headline (January 23): ‘Husband died ‘in a state’ after ambulance no-show’. It tells the tragic story of a man who ‘waited more than 14 hours for an ambulance which never showed up’. He ’fell ill on the night of 4 December, but despite his wife …. calling an ambulance at 06:00 GMT the next day, he did not get to hospital until his son drove him in at 21:00. His condition deteriorated in hospital and he died on 7 December after eventually being diagnosed with sepsis.’ It’s a tragic case – yet another one – seemingly linked to severe problems in the NHS across the UK.

BBC Wales reports this in a matter of fact manner: there is no politicisation. It is the responsible Cardiff and Vale University Health Board that has provided a response to the BBC.

Meanwhile Labour’s take on NHS Scotland

Mindful of the foregoing, let’s recall the remarks addressed to the First Minister on the NHS by the British Labour Party’s leader in Holyrood during FMQs on January 23:

“… the crisis that his party has created in our NHS. Given that he already rolled up his sleeves and wrecked our education system and rolled up his sleeves and wrecked the public finances, is it any wonder that Scots fear for the future of our NHS under the SNP?”

“… the SNP’s record on the NHS is one of abject failure.”

The BBC News website’s Wales section on January 24, 2023 had this headline: ‘Mark Drakeford accused of being ‘in denial’ on NHS’.  This comes from Drakeford’s time as Labour First Minister in Wales.

Replying to an opposition member of the Senedd, Drakeford is reporting saying: ”If he wants to describe it as a crisis, and thinks that somehow a psychodrama solution is what the health service needs, it’s not the view that I take on it”.

And on BBC Scotland’s reporting to contrast with that of BBC Wales, two examples: firstly on November 11, 2021 the BBC News web site’s Scotland page had this headline: ‘Lives being lost’ due to Scottish ambulance waiting times’. It tells us: ‘MSPs have called for action to bolster Scotland’s health services, saying “lives are being lost which could have been saved” due to ambulance delays. Opposition leaders highlighted the case of …. who died while waiting five hours for an ambulance.’

Labour’s leader in Holyrood is quoted in the BBC Scotland article: ‘Mr Sarwar said the “out of touch and hopeless government“ was “presiding over a crisis in our NHS”. Views of Tory and Lib Dem politicians are also referenced, as is a trade union’s – all placing blame on the Scottish Government and generalising from one incident to the whole system. No context, no perspective, no comparative statistics, no analysis.

The BBC News website had an article with this headline on September 16, 2024: ’Health secretary denies ‘crisis’ in Scotland’s NHS’. Note the negative framing! The article reports the remarks of Neil Gray and juxtaposes them with statistics on missed performance targets and unfavourable comments from third parties. The piece is crafted to undermine the credibility of the Health Secretary statement. The article quotes two opposition MSPs, the Tory Sandesh Gulhane and Labour’s Jackie Baillie.

This is what the Labour health spokesperson in Holyrood is reported as saying: “NHS staff do an incredible job in caring for us but they are let down by the SNP time and time again.” (my emphasis)

No NHS health board official is quoted. The article makes no reference to ‘reasons’ for the pressures on NHS Scotland – or anywhere else in the UK. There is no need, no motivation to do so: the narrative is agreed, clear and simple and one reason suffices – it’s ‘SNPbad’!

So then who – or what – is to blame for the state of the NHS in Wales?

How would the leaders of the British Labour Party in Scotland explain the poor state of NHS Wales for which their party – for decades governing with devolved powers in Cardiff – is responsible? Is the Labour government in Wales an ’out of touch and hopeless government’; is it ‘presiding over a crisis in the Welsh NHS’; are staff in NHS Wales being ‘let down by Labour time and time again’; has the Labour Party in government in Cardiff been ‘an abject failure’?  Will Anas Sarwar or Jackie Baillie ever be asked such questions by a journalist from BBC Scotland, STV, the Daily Record, The Herald, The Scotsman et al?

A full and proper understanding of the complex of reasons behind the ills of the NHS in Scotland – and in Wales, England and NI too – is necessary if they are to be cured. Those that need the services of the NHS now and in the future require so much more than the kind of trite politicisation that characterises the input of the British Labour Party in Scotland – ‘it’s all down to that bad SNP’.

Given what we know of the state of NHS Wales today despite years of promises and yes, genuine efforts to improve matters, the track record of the longstanding Labour government in Cardiff does not suggest that a change in 2026 to a Labour government in Edinburgh is a guarantee of anything positive! Labour’s leadership in Scotland should acknowledge the damaging effects on the NHS – for well over a decade now – of the truth that “all roads lead back to Westminster” (according to Wes Streeting, UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care)!

In the run-up to the Holyrood election, the track record of the British Labour Party in government with devolved powers in Cardiff IS relevant: it is the hypocrisy of the Labour leadership in Holyrood that makes it so!