Sunday, October 27, 2024
Welsh Labour is Starmer's problem on the NHS
LBC suggest that NHS day-to-day budget could see an increase of around three to four per cent for this year as well as 2025-26 - totalling £10 billion a year, though this has not been confirmed:
Extra details on Labour's pledge for 40,000 more appointments and operations a week are also expected to be announced.
But senior NHS leaders have said focusing on routine operations could be at the expense of emergency care.
NHS Confederation chief Matthew Taylor said focusing on routine operations "must not be to the detriment of the very real and immediate pressures facing emergency care this winter".
Writing in the paper, Ms Pritchard said the NHS had been told by the government that "there will be no NHS investment without reform".
"Far from being daunted, we welcome that," she said.
A recent review found that, despite the hospital workforce increasing by 17 per cent in four years, surgeons are performing 12 per cent fewer operations and A and E doctors or nurses are seeing 18 per cent fewer people.
There is no doubt that reform is needed, but will throwing money at the problem work, and what kind of reform does she have in mind? It is likely that this extra money will hardly touch the sides, and without proper funding to increase capacity in social care and support carers, its impact may well be limited.
Starmer and Reeves' bigger problem however is Labour already patch record on the health service. Here in Wales where Labour have run health and social care for twenty five years, we are well past crisis point. As the jounalist Will Hayward points out in his latest e-newsletter, the latest Welsh NHS waiting list data is out and they are now longer than they have ever been, exceeding even the Covid period.
He says that the list of those waiting over one or two years has been rising month on month through the summer:
The overall total is also going up. Welsh Labour have said they are putting in an extra £28m to tackle the longest waits but it will take some time to see if this makes an impact in data.
It is also worth noting that ailments do not stay the same while someone is on a waiting list. They often become more severe and complex meaning that when you eventually do come to treat it, it is a far harder proposition. A stitch in time (literally) saves nine. This is to say nothing to the other issues that come with long term illness like weight issues and mental health deterioration.
If Welsh Labour are no longer the largest party come 2026, it will be the inability to get these lists down which will be the primary reason.
A Reeves injection of new money into the health service will generate quite a big Barnett consequential for Wales, possibly as much as half a billion pounds. That would be very welcome, but if the Welsh Labour government do not use it well, then the problems will continue.
Labour's record in Wales is a major embarrassment for Starmer. Can they fix it? We will see.
