Eluned Morgan is failing as First Minister, says Plaid Cymru, as Senedd business resumes

Martin Shipton

The state of the NHS shows that Eluned Morgan is “failing” as First Minister of Wales, according to Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Speaking at the start of the new Senedd term, he said 2025 would be a “crucial” year for Wales ahead of the Senedd election in May next year.

Mr ap Iorwerth said Plaid would, over the next term, publish further details of its vision for leading Wales – beginning with a plan to bring NHS waiting times down.

The party will outline further details on its vision for government over the next few months.

NHS targets

Mr ap Iorwerth strongly criticised the record of Labour’s First Minister, formerly the Health Minister, on missed NHS targets and said that the government had failed to deliver the changes needed to fix the NHS in Wales.

Waiting times hit another record high late last year with over 800,000 hospital patient pathways.

The party’s health spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor previously announced plans to reform the way the NHS is run in November last year.

Mr ap Iorwerth said: “The new year brings opportunities, but Wales is facing the same old challenges: wages not keeping up with bills, public services struggling, HS2 billions still missing, and an NHS, despite the best efforts of staff, overstretched and at capacity.

“A quarter of patients are currently waiting over eight hours in A&E, hospital waiting lists have topped 800,000, ambulance services are in crisis, and GP surgeries are closing. This is unacceptable.

“As Health Minister, Eluned Morgan promised no patient would wait over 12 months for treatment by spring—a promise already broken by virtue of the fact she’s set a new target of bringing two year waits down to 8,000 by April – and based on December’s numbers even those figures are going in the wrong direction.

“No matter how many times this Labour government tries to reincarnate itself as being a government of delivery, it continues to fail the NHS workforce and its patients.

“This is a failure of delivery by a failing First Minister.

“2025 will be a crucial year for Wales. This year can be the beginning of the fresh start that Wales needs – with Plaid Cymru at the helm.

“We don’t believe this is as good as it gets. Over the next months, we will give further detail on our ambitious offer of change to the people of Wales: better public services, an improved NHS, an economy that creates good jobs, and a government that will be unrelenting in fighting for fairness for our communities.

“To those who want to see Wales put first, who feel let down by Labour, and are looking for an alternative to division, look to Plaid Cymru at next year’s Senedd election.

“Together, we can build a fairer, more hopeful Wales and deliver the future we deserve.”

Deliver

Meanwhile Eluned Morgan will tell the Senedd how she intends to deliver for Wales in 2025.

Since becoming First Minister last summer, following the ousting of the scandal-hit Vaughan Gething, she has travelled across the country, meeting people in their own communities to listen and learn firsthand what is most important to them. Their priorities, she says, have been placed at the heart of the government’s work programme: ‘Iechyd da’ – a Healthier Wales, jobs and green growth, opportunity for every family and connecting communities.

The Welsh Government has targeted an extra £157m this financial year to deliver these promises. This includes £21m for diagnostic equipment for the NHS to help cut waiting times, in addition to a £50m package targeted to cut the longest waits. Some £20m has been provided through the School Standards Grant and a further £10m to support Additional Learning Needs provision. An extra £20m has been allocated for school and college repairs and maintenance.

An additional £10m has been invested in social housing, as well as £10m extra for reablement services – helping people relearn how to do daily activities, like cooking meals and washing, increasing community-based care and improving hospital discharge. There is also support for domiciliary care – maintaining the £100-a-week maximum charge for care.

In motion

Plans for delivery in 2025 are already in motion, the First Minister insists. The Welsh Government’s draft Budget set out its vision for a brighter future, delivering an extra £1.5bn for public services and priorities. This, she claims, will serve as a blueprint for improving life in Wales for the next year, putting it firmly back on the path to growth.

Baroness Morgan said: “We have an ambitious plan for delivery in 2025 and beyond, working across each of our priority areas and in collaboration with our partners around the country.

“It’s important to me that we are a government that listens and a government that responds to what it hears and works with our partners to deliver real results for people.

“This is by no means the end of our conversation with the people of Wales. It is more like a fresh beginning – the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new term and the beginning of our journey to build a brighter future for Wales.”