Today, at First Minister’s Questions, the Leader of the Welsh Conservatives has raised with the First Minister, a series of Welsh Conservative Freedom of Information requests revealing that since the May 2021 Senedd election, where Labour formed yet another Welsh Government with the support of Plaid Cymru, 38,374 patients had died while waiting for NHS treatment.
The Labour Health Minister, now First Minister, Eluned Morgan promised to eliminate two-year waits for treatment for the last two years (by March 2023 and again by March 2024), but failed to meet these targets and still has not. In England, these long waits have been virtually eliminated.
Welsh Conservatives have once again urged the First Minister to declare a health emergency to tackle these excessive waits for treatment in the Welsh NHS.
Commenting, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar MS said:
“Labour, with routine support from Plaid Cymru, has broken the Welsh NHS. Since the last Senedd election, almost forty thousand patients have died while waiting for NHS treatment – it is a national scandal.
“Instead of focussing on patients, Labour and Plaid chose to focus on the constitution. Instead of delivering more operations, they opted to create more politicians. Instead of speeding up access to healthcare, they focussed on speed limits.
“The Welsh Conservative would declare a health emergency to direct the resources and apparatus of Government at tackling these excessive NHS waiting times, guaranteeing one year maximum waits for treatment.”
