Tory MP calls for Boris Johnson to make Welsh NHS more like England’s
A Tory MP has called on Boris Johnson to make the Welsh NHS more like England’s.
James Davies, who represents the Vale of Clwyd asked the UK Prime Minister to intervene in the health system in Wales, despite the issue being devolved to the Senedd.
During Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, he claimed there are discrepancies in access to health care between Wales and England and suggested the issue could be addressed in the UK Government’s so called ‘levelling up’ agenda.
Wales does not have a market-based system like England, instead focusing on a planning-based approach in which health boards receive core funding allocations based on the size and make-up of their local population.
‘Patients in England’
Davies said: “Patients in England have unfettered access to specialist hospital care anywhere in England, including within world-leading centres of excellence, but my constituents in North Wales have no such automatic choice, with access dependent on restrictive contracts or individual funding requests.
“So will my Right Honourable Friend do all he can to ensure that healthcare features prominently within the UK levelling-up agenda?”
Boris Johnson replied: “I thank my Honourable Friend for his point, and he knows a great deal about the subject.
“We have worked very hard with the Welsh Government throughout the pandemic, supporting them with £8.6 billion of additional funding through the Barnett formula, but clearly we need to learn the lessons together as we bounce forward from this pandemic.”
Speaking after PMQs, Davies said: “As the pandemic subsides and the NHS begins to ramp up provision of routine care, we have the opportunity to put right the mistakes of the past.
“Healthcare is largely devolved but I believe the UK Government has a role in ensuring minimum standards and access to care for all across the United Kingdom.”
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Typical Tory colonist.
Hereford and Worcester have done their damnedest to kill me and my partner. They actually phoned me up after she had been rushed in by ambulance and when I got there to pick her up she was on a chair in the car park having spent all night in a corridor. At 2am next morning I had to drive her to Nevill Hall where she stayed for 10 days while they sorted out her gallstones and pulmonary problems. She used to be a senior A&E sister at the old Westminster hospital, the local to the Commons and Lords and she… Read more »
Now the Welsh NHS is in their sights, devolution attacked from all angles. The fight is on – either we gain independence or become a county of England. If you value your country you will join me over the coming months and years in protecting our very existence. It’s independence or bust.
I am an honorary Welshwoman, married in more than 30 years ago. In that time my life, and my husband’s, have both been saved several times by NHS Wales including a cancer each. I’m almost scared to visit England in case I’m taken ill there, the NHS is so different. I see its treatment of people I know back there. Not their fault, they are crushed from above. But oh how glad I am my Welshman means our lives are here in Wales with a proper, efficient, caring NHS.
What else would you expect from a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
The clue is in the name. They have never liked devolution – especially as they can’t win here.
The Tory boy obviously has chums who wish to “trade” with NHS Wales but can’t get a foot in the door whereas Boris & Hancock’s cronyism model is well into action in NHS England and showing the way for others to fill their boots. Nasty.