By stewartb

Another question for Dame Jackie Baillie and her ilk! How can this (below) be happening in a nation that has been governed by the British Labour Party for 26 or 27 years?

From the Wales page of the BBC News website today (June 19): ‘Treatment wait times up despite extra NHS funding’. This is what we learn about NHS Wales today:

• ‘.. monthly waiting times in Wales have risen again’
• ‘the number of people waiting more than two years for treatment rose to more than 9,600 patients, up from about 8,400 last month’
• ‘The latest figures also show a worsening picture in cancer performance, dropping to 60.5% of patients starting treatment within 62 days of the suspicion of cancer’
• ‘There was also an increase in daily attendances to A&E, though performance against the four and 12-hour targets dipped’
• ‘Ambulance response times also slightly worsened, though next month changes will be brought in to the targets, with an emphasis on patient outcomes rather than response times’.

The health think tank, the Nuffield Trust now offers users of its website access to an AI powered search facility. It invites them to pose their own questions. To the question ‘What is the state of NHS Wales?’, this is the response:

‘The state of NHS Wales is marked by notable challenges, particularly regarding waiting times and overall healthcare efficiency compared to other regions in the UK.

‘Patients in Wales have consistently waited longer than those in England and Scotland for treatments, with median waiting times for referrals showing a significant gap that widened during the COVID-19 pandemic (Source).

‘A higher proportion of patients experience prolonged waits in Emergency Departments (A&E), indicating a systemic struggle to manage patient admissions effectively (Source).

‘Wales has a higher rate of treatable mortality compared to England, reflecting issues in both health service efficiency and population health needs (Source).

‘Despite receiving more funding per capita than England, there are concerns about the prioritisation of health funding versus other public services, potentially impacting healthcare delivery (Source).

‘In summary, while NHS Wales is generally well-resourced, it faces considerable difficulties in meeting patient care targets and managing efficiency, pointing to the need for further reforms.’

Still on health, the last time the Royal College oof Emergency Medicine commented on the performance of A&E departments in NHS Wales (on May 22), it stated this: ‘Extreme waiting times in Welsh Emergency Departments (EDs) remain consistently high and are putting vulnerable patients at risk of significant harm.  

‘That’s the response from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine as the latest performance data released today (22 May 2025) reveals almost one in every six people waited 12 hours or more in major EDs last month.   That’s 15.2% of attendances ..’

The problematic legacy of 26 years of the British Labour Party governing with devolved power in Cardiff is not limited to NHS Wales. Is this all down to Labour governments in Cardiff or a consequence of Wales in Union?

How would the British Labour Party’s leadership in Scotland explain all this away: Sarwar, Baillie and the rest SHOULD be asked by journalists who supposedly serve Scotland’s polity. And it needs to be done before folk are deceived by BBC Scotland, the Daily Record and others in the mainstream media into thinking that Labour in government in Holyrood will be the solution to what Scotland needs. Of course that form of journalism is very unlikely!

Let’s for the moment assume that over this 26 year period, successive British Labour Party governments in Cardiff have been well-intentioned, reasonably competent and supportive of the NHS. The question then must be: ‘why is NHS Wales in such a poor state?’

From this and other evidence, it is a reasonable hypothesis (at the very least) to conclude that devolved powers to Cardiff (and to Belfast and Edinburgh) are adequate at best to make a marginally better fist of providing NHS services (cf. NHS Scotland) but far, far from sufficient to counter a crap UK run from Westminster to meet England’s needs and wants.

All roads do indeed lead to Westminster even if Unionist politicians in NI, Scotland and Wales are in denial because of the negative consequences of that fact for the status – and attractiveness – of their Union.