Lib Dem leader pledges 5,000 new social care beds to ease NHS crisis in Wales
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds has pledged to fund 5,000 new social care beds to relieve pressure on Wales’ overstretched health system, warning that the NHS is “at breaking point.”
Speaking at her party’s annual conference in Wrexham, she said the beds would be funded “for as long as they are needed,” ensuring people are cared for in the right setting rather than left waiting in hospitals.
Highlighting that every day the Welsh Government spends nearly £480,000 keeping patients in hospital despite being fit for discharge, she added: “Every single day, the Welsh Government is spending £478,200 on patients who are fit to be discharged.
“That’s why I want the next Welsh Government to fund 5,000 additional social care beds for as long as they are needed – easing the pressure on our NHS and ensuring people get the right care, in the right place, at the right time.”
Intolerable strain
The MS for Mid and West Wales said that without urgent investment in social care, NHS staff would remain under intolerable strain. She confirmed her party would be prepared to raise income tax by one penny in the pound if that was the only way to pay for the plan.
She added that her party would be “honest with voters” about the costs of fixing health and care, arguing that investment in prevention and community support would reduce long-term pressures. “If we are serious about creating the healthier, fairer, more prosperous Wales we all want to see, we must invest in the services that make it possible,” she said.
The pledge is the centrepiece of the party’s plans to reform health and social care, moving away from what Dodds described as a “one-size-fits-all” model to one focused on early intervention, prevention, and independence.
The proposal comes ahead of next year’s Senedd elections, where the Welsh Liberal Democrats believe they are on course for their strongest ever result.
Alternative
Dodds positioned her party as the alternative to what she called Labour and Conservative “failure to deliver,” and rejected Reform UK’s “simple soundbites and blame,” while warning that Plaid Cymru’s “push for independence will do more harm than good and we need to be concerned about what their rise in the polls means for Wales.”
She concluded: “Wales needs ambition and action, not blame. With honesty and ambition, the Welsh Liberal Democrats can deliver the change Wales deserves.”
According to ITV Cymru Wales’ latest Senedd voting intentions poll, the Liberal Democrats are projected to win two seats at next May’s Senedd election. The poll, published last month, ranked the party in 5th place with the support of just 6% of respondents.
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Every council should publish monthly social care statistics on the number of people they were asked to accept from healthcare settings, and how long that request took to meet. That would provide information on how much NHS bed blocking councils are causing.
Maybe; but perhaps if the NHS consumed less of the health and social care budget, then Councils would have more resources to deal with the problem. And often the cause of the delay is in the hospital not the local authority.
If only there were fewer sick people, is it?
The data I’ve asked for would avoid the need for you to speculate on the source of the delay.
Welcome, sensible and deliverable aspirations.
Next Jane Dodds will be promising to abolish Welsh student tuition fees.