Expanding the Welsh NHS

Plaid Cymru says that the NHS in Wales is in crisis and that it is all Labour's fault. Roger Dobson reports

Reducing waiting lists, increasing intensive care beds, setting up new walk-in diagnostic centres, and banning adverts for unhealthy food on children's television are among the election health policies of Plaid Cymru.

A 12 point action plan for health and social care is at the heart of the party's strategy for what it describes as a crisis in the Welsh health service. Four months ago, Plaid Cymru tabled a vote of no confidence in the health polices of the Welsh Assembly after concern about waiting lists and the findings of a report commissioned by the assembly that warned that demand for health and social care services in Wales could overwhelm the system.

“We have a crisis at present because the Labour government's promise to clear the waiting lists in Wales has been broken. Between 2000 and 2003, the number of hospital beds fell by 3% while the number of inpatients receiving treatment fell by 4%. At this election, we will be campaigning for a 12 point action plan to tackle the current crisis,” said Rhodri Glyn Thomas, shadow health minister in the Welsh Assembly.

Plaid Cymru is the main opposition party in the Welsh Assembly, in which the Labour Party has a majority of one. Responsibility for the NHS in Wales is divided between the Welsh Assembly and central government.

The party's plan, much of it designed to reduce hospital waiting lists and waiting times, includes the development of new capacity in GP surgeries, and the setting up of new NHS walk-in diagnostic and treatment centres to take pressure off hospital emergency departments.

Plaid Cymru say that no more operations would be cancelled on the day and that there would be an increase of 50 in the number of intensive care beds, along with better use of existing capacity where necessary. “Urgent steps also have to be taken within hospitals to improve on the way they currently operate, so that more patients can be treated. We want to see more use of the skills of nurses, physiotherapists, and social workers; more availability of training for them; and improved working conditions,” says the plan.

Every pupil would have access to a school nurse to avoid hospitals becoming involved in the treatment of minor problems, and there would also be a campaign to combat methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Free eye tests and dental checks would be reintroduced, and the party says that payments to nursing homes should be increased.

The party says that in the longer term, the structure and financial organisation of the NHS in Wales would be changed to rid it of anything connected with the internal market approach.

In the bigger picture, the party is also pledging to tackle the causes of ill health: “These include not only longstanding causes such as poverty and unhealthy working and housing conditions,but increasingly also the misuse of drugs, lack of exercise, and exploitative marketing to young children,” says the strategy.

“Plaid Cymru will seek a ban on the advertising of unhealthy food and drink on children's television and encourage schools to get rid of junk food vending machines. We will work for a ban on smoking in public places, in the interests of children's as well as adults' health.”