Health and Adult Social Care Reform

Llinos Medi Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

Clinical academics have an important role to play in the national health service and in innovation in medicine. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education is focused on university finances, and I think universities should ensure that they prioritise efficiently and effectively, making best use of the resources available to them. I would gently say that universities have not struggled as much as other parts of the public sector over the past 14 years.

[Llinos Medi (Ynys Môn) (PC)]

During 14 years of austerity, the NHS has been starved of the resources it badly needs. Four months ago, the Secretary of State for Wales made a big announcement about cross-border NHS partnership to tackle waiting lists; however, the First Minister of Wales later poured cold water over the idea, and today’s plan for England does not mention Wales. Was this so-called partnership ever real, or was it just another empty promise?

[Wes Streeting]

By definition, an elective recovery plan for England does not include Wales. However, I can assure the hon. Lady that we have a great working relationship with Jeremy Miles, the Health Minister in the Welsh Government, and with the First Minister herself. Not only are we providing support to the Welsh Government on elective reform to help them to cut waiting lists and waiting times, but we are receiving advice from the Welsh Government on areas where health and social care services are doing better than in England. Together, we will create a rising tide that lifts all ships across the UK.

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.