Labour’s NHS collaboration pledge branded ‘PR gimmick’ in Senedd

Emily Price

Labour’s plans for the UK and Welsh governments to collaborate on NHS waiting lists were branded a “PR gimmick” after the First Minister failed to give details on how the partnership will work.

Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens announced the new plan on Monday (September 23) which will see the two governments work together on health care for the first time to help drive down waiting lists on both sides of the border and improve patient care.

Labour claims the new cooperation between its administrations in Westminster and Cardiff will draw on expertise from officials across both governments to drive improvements in the day-to-day lives of people across Wales.

During First Minister’s Questions on Tuesday (September 25), Baroness Eluned Morgan was grilled by opposition leader Andrew RT Davies on how much funding is being allocated to the plan and how many patients are expected to benefit.

‘Serious’

The previous UK Conservative Health Secretary suggested he was open to cross-border cooperation but failed to achieve meaningful agreement prior to the General Election.

Mr Davies asked the FM why the previous offer in August 2023 of a similar plan wasn’t explored.

He said an extra 50,000 people had joined an NHS waiting list in Wales in the intervening period.

Baroness Morgan hit back saying the offer hadn’t been “serious” and had involved an invitation to discuss it from Steve Barclay after only a short five minute meeting.

She said the former Secretary of State for Health then went on the airwaves to “score a political point”.

Speaking in the Chamber, she said: “That does not build trust between two governments – that is not the way to cooperate. There was no false intentions from our side.

“But if I thought for a moment that they were serious I would have bitten their hand off. But they were playing politics – and that is not the way we are working.”

The leader of the Senedd Tories asked how many patients will benefit from the new Labour offer and will it be limited to certain waits.

Conversation 

The First Minister said she had a conversation with Wes Streeting at the weekend on best practice.

She said: “The key thing here is the people of Wales are very keen to see us work together – that’s what they want to see.

“Already there is a degree of cooperation, for example in England if people have cleft palate or they need specific support on burns or plastic surgery – they come to Wales.

“So it’s a two way system. The thing that was of particular interest to them was to see how we have already started to make the changes into the shift in primary care and support in the community.

“They are very interested in seeing how we’ve already changed the optometry contract and how we are already giving additional support in terms of pharmacy.

“So they can learn from us and we can learn from them and that’s no bad thing.”

Mr Davies said the FM had failed to answer his question because she hadn’t provided detail on the potential cost and whether the offer will be limited to specific waits.

He said: “I believe it is a sensible and progressive way to address waiting times here in Wales. But I’d like to see the substance of it, otherwise people will just look at it as a PR gimmick that was launched at the Labour Party conference – but this time in six months we will still have those chronic waiting times in Wales.”

Baroness Morgan said the Welsh and UK Governments had started a “conversation” and they would come up with the details in the weeks to come.

She said: “We are keen to wait to hear what the next Budget will look like which will give us a sense of who much will come from closing the loophole to the non-dom people who you let get away with not paying taxes – that was your government who was responsible for that.

“We are in a conversation and Wes Streeting is very keen to come and see us here and we are very serious. The fact is we are cooperating and looking at what we can do – particularly in the north Wales area.”