Calls to declare health emergency over NHS in Wales rejected
Leading a Tory debate on July 2, the shadow health secretary told the Senedd more than 100,000 people in Wales wait more than 12 hours in A&E each month.
Mr Evans said: 'While they wait, ambulances queue outside, unable to offload patients, tying up paramedics who should be on the road saving lives. The ambulance service has not hit its target for eight-minute response times for life-threatening calls for four years straight.'
He warned GP services are overwhelmed, NHS dentistry is collapsing and mental health services are also in crisis. 'If that's not an emergency, I do not know what is,' he said.
Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru's shadow health secretary, supported the Tory motion, pointing out that his party made calls to declare a health emergency in February 2024.
Describing Labour's record over the past 26 years as unacceptable, Mr ap Gwynfor accused ministers of changing targets on a whim and refusing to admit failure.
The Conservatives' Natasha Asghar criticised 'shameful' treatment times in Wales. She said: 'If anything, things continue to go from bad to worse under Labour's watch and, perhaps more worryingly, failure… to turn things around seems to end in promotion.
'Mark Drakeford, Vaughan Gething and Eluned Morgan all presided over the health brief, failed to deliver successful results and ended up being first minister.'
Jeremy Miles accused the opposition of only seeing the worst in the health service and indulging in their 'favourite sport' of political football, 'kicking the NHS from pillar to post.'
Hitting back at his opposite number, the health secretary said: 'I heard the Conservative health spokesman say… 'if that's not an emergency, I don't know what is'.
'Let me tell him what a health emergency is – it's covid, it's mpox, it's war, it's terrorism."
Senedd members voted 26-24 against the Tory motion before agreeing the Welsh Government's amended version by the same margin.
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