Wrexham’s MP candidates tell you how they would sort out the NHS

Candidates looking for your support have been invited to share their views on a range of issues.

As part of our election coverage ahead of the poll on Thursday we asked all candidates a range of questions, with a theme based collection from all candidates below. You can also read individual answers to all the questions here on our Election 24 page, plus links to party manifesto, supplied bios for candidates and links to find out where exactly your polling station is!

Question: Health is devolved, but there is a link to Westminster and England in many ways. People are waiting longer for GP appointments, hospital waiting times have risen, staff are poorly paid and overworked. In your opinion, how do you think the issues in the NHS need addressing?

Two things – Funding and Caring.

Firstly, the funding. Every party is urging more spending on the Health & Social Care, but I believe only The Green Party have truly admitted the size of the funding required. The Green Party propose raising more funds for Health and Social Care than the main two parties combined; paid for by redistributing from the super-rich. For Junior Doctors to be striking is simply unprecedented – they are ringing the alarm bells and The Green Party are listening.

Secondly, the caring. The Green Party manifesto talks about caring and experience. I despair when the general conversation around Health and Social care simply comes down to the number of doctors, number of nurses, number of appointments, number of scans, and number of tablets. Numbers, numbers and numbers. Having worked in the NHS for 20 years I know Health and Social Care is about more than numbers alone. It is about feeling valued, respected, cared for, and heard. We need to ensure we are creating an environment where our Health Professionals and Carers are able to really do what they do best, and care for us as individual people, not as targets.

We’re suffering from staffing shortages across the NHS. The UK Government determines the numbers of training places for doctors and nurses, and in recent years they have moved the numbers up and down based on financial costs, not driven by a long-terms staff plan or the actual needs of the NHS. So I’d press for an expansion in training palces for medical staff.
We also need to make sure that once we have trained doctors and nurses, that they want to stay in this country. In the last few years, we’ve seen staff leaving to work in places like Australia or Canada where the pay and conditions are much better. If we want to keep out highly skilled staff, we need to pay tem adequately and offer thm the chance to progress their careers within the NHS.

NHS hospitals can only function effectively if they are able to get patients out of hospital and back into their homes once their treatment is complete. We’re seeing large numbers of beds occupied by people who are medically fit, but who can’t return home because of a lack of suitable care. The Lib Dems support an expansion of social care to allow more people to enjoy a better quality of life in their own homes, while freeing up capacity in NHS hospitals.

Finally, the management of the local health board has left much to be desired in recent years. There has been a lot of change in senior management posts and at board level, but I would argue there is a need for a deeper review of how the NHS is delivered across North Wales.

A Labour Government in Westminster working in partnership with the Labour Government in Wales will cut waiting times for NHS care. The record of the last UK Labour government on the NHS in Wales speaks for itself – the shortest waiting times on record and the highest patient satisfaction in history.
Welsh Labour will continue to invest in and protect health and social care in Wales. They will deliver reforms that ensure faster access to new treatments, new state of the art equipment and digital technology, and move care closer to home. They are building the NHS workforce of the future with the new medical school in North Wales opening this year and we will work in collaboration with NHS staff to deliver improvements for them and patients, with the social partnership model. Long waiting times are improving, and the Welsh Government is working hard to deliver improvements across the board. NHS waiting times will be cut by targeting those who have been waiting the longest and who are in the most need, paid for by cracking down on tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes.
Social care also needs to be reformed with the establishment of a National Care and Support Service to help those that require care to live happy, independent lives as close to home as possible. Care workers already receive the Real Living Wage in Wales but we will also continue to improve the terms and conditions in the sector to improve retention and recruitment of the workforce. We must also recognise the huge contribution that unpaid carers make and ensure that they get the financial support, and wellbeing support that they need such as respite breaks.

I have addressed some of this in the first question. We need complete reform of our health care system with a more integrated approach with social care. I personally, and Plaid Cymru as a party, stand in solidarity with our healthcare workers (literally on the picket lines at times). Wage restoration pledges must be implemented as an urgent priority. The NHS is nothing without its staff and so we must show that we value and support them. This is essential for both recruitment and retention of health care professionals. Plaid Cymru would also look to recruit 500 more GPs by restoring funding to 8.7% of the Welsh health budget.

No response to our Q&A has been received.

Health is a DEVOLVED issue and is managed by the Welsh LABOUR Government in Cardiff. Since devolution began, Labour has overseen a terrible decline in the NHS in Wales. Labour is the only administration to have ever cut an NHS budget, which they now underfund by £500 million. This has resulted in the worst A&E performance, the worst ambulance response times and the worst surgery and cancer treatment waiting times in the UK. This is despite Welsh Labour receiving the largest funding settlement since devolution began.
As a nurse who returned to the wards during COVID (donating my salary to charity), I know how Labour-run health services consistently fail our community and clinicians, offering hollow promises instead of real improvements. Over the past 5 years, I have supported over 17,000 constituents with their health and social care related casework. I’ve also helped secure funding for a Veterans Care Co-ordinator at the Maelor, delivered extended funding for the Metastatic Cancer Nurse at the Shooting Star unit, supported the great work of our clinicians, such as the Health Board’s Thrombosis Team, the Plas Gororau project and the Pre-habitation scheme. I’ve also been a constant supporter of the Wrexham Prostate Support Group and the Maelor Voluntary Service.
There’s so much more to do to overcome the Cardiff Labour decline. If re-elected, I will continue to fight for a new hospital, improved parking, and a permanent Metastatic Cancer Nurse. I’m also calling for an action-focused, UK-led inquiry into our Health Board. My goal is to ensure that the Welsh Government allocates funds effectively and stops wasting money to give Wrexham the health service we deserve and pay for.

A full and transparent Royal commission for 12 months into health and social care provision for all of the UK, to feed its findings to Parliament, not one person or party has the answer to this problem.

You can read more Q&A answers here on our Election 24 page along with more election information – remember to GO VOTE ON THURSDAY!

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