Access to Primary Healthcare

Llinos Medi Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Llinos Medi (Ynys Môn) (PC)]

Diolch, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I am deeply grateful to the committed NHS staff who deliver exceptional care in hugely difficult circumstances. Health is of course devolved to the Welsh Government, but people on both sides of the border will recognise the struggle to see their GP, increasing waiting lists, and the dire state of A&E services.

Waiting lists for hospital treatment in Wales reached a record high this year, and NHS dentistry is non-existent in many parts of Wales. In my constituency, Valley Dental will soon become the fourth practice to withdraw NHS services since late 2022. Between January and December 2023, only 44.8% of people in Wales received treatment through an NHS dentist, and in north Wales that figure was 36.6%. Despite that, the Secretary of State for Wales has hailed Welsh NHS dentistry as a model of success.

Following a long campaign by Plaid Cymru, the north Wales medical school recently opened its doors at Bangor University, despite previous claims by the Welsh Labour Government that there was “no case” for it. I hope the Government will be receptive to our new campaign for a dentistry school at the university, which would secure high-quality jobs for north Wales and provide more dentists for an area beset by shortage.

At the Labour party conference, the Secretary of State for Wales announced that patients from Wales could receive NHS treatment in England, and vice versa, under UK and Welsh Government plans to reduce waiting lists, yet the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care categorically ruled out giving patients the option to travel to England for more treatment. My party obtained freedom of information responses from three NHS bodies, two in England and one in Wales. All three said they had received no correspondence from the UK Government or the Welsh Government regarding the proposal. Perhaps the Secretary of State could explain to the House what the plan means for patients in Wales.

Fourteen years of under-investment and the creeping advance of privatisation have placed a heavy burden on our NHS. Pursuing the same tired route will not deliver the thriving and improved health services that we all want to see for staff and patients.