Janice R. Andrews
There is a political fight going on between Wales’ First Minister Eluned Morgan and NHS bosses over long wait times in hospitals. Morgan said last Sunday on BBC One’s “Politics Wales” show that she plans to hold health board top executives responsible for the care they provide. The main point of contention is her comment that health leaders, who are paid a lot, should be more accountable for handling waiting lists.
The First Minister Slams NHS Leaders for Long Waits
Morgan stressed how important it was to put pressure on the well-paid heads of health boards to do a better job. She said that while waiting times have gone down in some places, they are still very high in others. In Wales, the heads of health boards can make up to £250,000 a year. Morgan says that people should be better informed about how this money is spent.
“I think it’s important that we put the pressure on those people who are managing the NHS,” he said. “Let’s get them to be more accountable for the money that the taxpayers are giving them.”
Her overall plan is to focus on making real changes, like lowering wait times, rather than making big changes to the Welsh healthcare system. This method fits with that.
The NHS Confederation Fights Back
Morgan’s comments were quickly pushed back against by the Welsh NHS Confederation, which is made up of the heads of NHS Wales. The head of the Confederation, Darren Hughes, talked about the bigger problems that the NHS is facing, saying that waiting lines can’t be fixed by themselves.
Hughes said that the NHS is taking care of more patients than ever before, but it has a hard time releasing medically fit people because the social care system is so busy. Up to 20% of beds in some hospitals are empty because patients who are ready to go home can’t because they are waiting for social care plans to be made.
Hughes pointed out that the NHS and local governments need to work together to solve these problems. “This is like trying to run the NHS with one hand tied behind your back,” he said.
Discharge Delays and Problems with the System
New information shows that the Welsh healthcare system is getting more and more stressed. In July, 1,541 hospital patients were physically ready to go home but stayed because of different delays. Freedom of Information requests showed that patients stayed in hospitals for an average of five weeks after being told they were healthy enough to go home. The NHS thinks that these delays cost them £14 million every month.
The delays have a lot of different reasons. In the past year, 41% of release delays were caused by problems with assessments, and almost a quarter were caused by issues with finding care homes. Because of this, the NHS is having trouble keeping up with demand, and hospital beds are being used by people who no longer need emergency care.
The political debate on changing the NHS
The First Minister’s words came before a big policy speech on Tuesday, where she is likely to talk about her plans for the rest of the Senedd term, which ends in 2026. Morgan made it clear last week that her government would focus on shortening wait times instead of making big changes to the healthcare system.
For a long time, Morgan has pushed for “delivering less but focussing on things that matter to people.” This method shows that she is realistic about the fact that big changes to healthcare are not possible right now. Instead, she wants to make changes that can be measured in certain areas, like cutting down on wait times.
But the NHS Confederation says that it will be hard to make real progress on waiting lists until the problems at the heart of social care and the healthcare system as a whole are fixed.
Response from the Welsh Government
The Welsh government wouldn’t say anything about the fight between Morgan and NHS leaders. The conflict between the two groups shows how hard it is to handle healthcare in Wales, where more patients want care and problems with the system have made wait times long and put a lot of financial pressure on the NHS.
As the political fight over NHS responsibility goes on, it remains to be seen whether Morgan’s pressure on NHS leaders will actually lead to big improvements in patient care or whether the Welsh healthcare system needs bigger changes to fix its problems.
The NHS is having record-long wait times, so fixing these problems will be very important for the future of healthcare in Wales.
