Senedd bid to declare NHS health crisis in Wales fails

The Labour members all sided with the Welsh Government to defeat an opposition motion by just one vote.

Plaid Cymru, backed by the Conservatives, had proposed the motion which also said it "regrets the Welsh Government's mismanagement of the pressures facing the NHS".

One MS said he hoped the vote, if it had passed, would help the government "respond better to the challenges".

Jayne Bryant (Newport West), Hefin David (Caerphilly), Alun Davies (Blaenau Gwent), John Griffiths (Newport East), Lynne Neagle (Torfaen), and Rhianon Passmore (Islwyn) all voted against the "health crisis" motion, as did every other Labour MS who took part in the ballot.

• READ MORE: The NHS is Wales is in crisis - how can we fix it?

Labour Senedd members (clockwise from top left) Alun Davies, Hefin David, Rhianon Passmore, John Griffiths, Jayne Bryant and Lynne Neagle. (Image: Senedd)

The vote comes amid strikes in the health sector and was followed on Thursday by the release of the latest NHS performance data.

Plaid MS Rhun ap Iorwerth said the motion was "intended to be constructive", but was "critical of the Welsh Government's management of health and care services, and I'm afraid that is based on the clear evidence before us".

"We’re asking for a declaration of a health crisis," he told the Senedd. "Once again, this is because we’re facing challenges of such extraordinary gravity that we believe government needs to be arming itself as well as it possibly can to deal with the situation."

He said MSs "have to accept that there is a crisis" and doing so, he argued, "would help focus minds on finding new and innovative ways to address the problems we face".

Rhun ap Iorwerth said Senedd members 'have to accept that there is a crisis' in the Welsh NHS. (Image: senedd.tv)

Russell George, the Tories' shadow health minister, said he was "under no illusion of the difficult pressures" in healthcare across the UK and abroad "but we're in a worse and a more significant position in Wales".

"We've got the slowest ambulance response times on record, the longest treatment waiting list and the worst A&E waits in Britain," he added. "That is fact and that's what we've got to recognise."

Eluned Morgan, the health minister, said "the system, particularly over Christmas, was under pressure like the NHS has never experienced before".

Health minister Eluned Morgan said the situation would 'continue to be very tough' for the NHS in Wales. (Image: senedd.tv)

"Demand is increasing hugely, and what we saw was a confluence of Covid, of strep A, of flu all coming together for that difficult period, and we're not out of it," she told the Senedd. "I'm expecting to see an impact from the cold weather on the services. So, it will continue to be very tough. This is something that systems all over the world are confronting."

Ms Morgan went on to say is was "absolutely clear that 10 years of Tory austerity has not helped" and added that if the UK Government spent as much on healthcare as countries like Germany, "we'd be in a lot better place".

The motion was defeated by 28 votes to 27.

A joint statement from the six Gwent Labour MSs said: “We recognise the huge pressures our NHS is experiencing at present, as well as the concerns people have raised.

“The NHS in Wales has faced unprecedented demand this winter, particularly between Christmas and New Year with high levels of flu and covid increasing admissions and staff absences.

“We want to thank staff who have worked so hard to provide care and support to everyone.

“Plaid Cymru’s motion this week did nothing to address the pressures on our NHS or offer the longer-term solutions which the Welsh Labour Government is working hard to put in place.

“These include 100 new ambulance staff, transforming emergency departments, improving the flow through hospitals, 508 new community beds and 400 more nurse training places, thanks to an eight per cent increase in the training and education budget.

“Plaid’s motion had nothing to say, either, on the abject failure of the Tory UK Government to deliver the level of funding needed to meet our high ambitions for health and care services.

“For the sake of patients, our hard working staff and the future of the NHS, we hope that Plaid Cymru starts to engage more constructively with our efforts to find long term solutions and secure a better funding deal from the UK Government.”