It is a sad fact that waiting lists in Wales continue to spiral out of control. We have the longest waits for treatment in the United Kingdom, with over 20,000 patients still waiting over 96 weeks for treatment.
I am sure we all know someone who is waiting for treatment on an NHS waiting list or has.
This is Labour record.
It is no wonder that Labour Ministers have been distancing themselves from their own record while out campaigning, trying to claim that voting Labour is the solution to the problems in the NHS. That simply isn’t the case.
Just last month we saw the number of people waiting for treatment in Wales hitting record levels. There is hardly a week where we don’t see some story in the news around an unacceptable situation in our NHS, whether it be vulnerable people waiting hours to see an ambulance to health professionals warning Labour Ministers of the current state in our healthcare system. It is clear that a vote for Labour simply will not solve the crisis in our NHS.
As Kier Starmer has claimed before, Wales is his blueprint for Labour, and when it comes to our health service, that is a worrying thought.
I want to strongly reiterate the point that I am incredibly proud of all of the staff who work in our healthcare system.
Every day they go above and beyond in ensuring that people across Wales get top quality care.
However, we cannot get away from the fact that it is the Labour Government who have run our NHS into the ground.
I have long called for a root and branch approach to funding in our NHS, ensuring every pound is spent effectively and is delivered to our frontline services, not wasted in excessive procurement fees or lost in bureaucracy.
We have outlined plans to creating surgical hubs and diagnostic centres to help us cut down on these record-breaking waiting lists.
We have also called on Labour Ministers in Wales to introduce a workforce plan here in Wales to ensure that we put an end to the chronic understaffing in our NHS.