First Minister accused of being complacent about A&E pressures

Wasn't she Health Minister? Patient flow and health/social services relations have been an issue for decades. It is not rocket science. The only time it got near working was when we had coterminous boundaries for Health Authorities and Local Authorities, and a thing in London called the DHSS. That was in 1974. A major review of NHS Wales was announced in the autumn. We need to see some bold and dynamic reforms put into place very quickly. Recruiting more staff does not bring expertise or experience, just more paper pushing within a broken service. The whole system needs a massive shakeup - multidisciplinary discharge teams working across hospital and community boundaries, support for families to have their relatives at home, evaluation and updating of needs with quicker response times, more vision and less laziness. And watch how much money would be saved and how many ambulance trips better used.

"She said: “You’ve got very many elderly people coming in with respiratory issues" You're about to get a hell of a lot more as a result of Sister Rachel's parsimonious butchering of the Winter Fuel Allowance. This "joined up polices at both ends of the M4" eh, really working out?

My question to Morgan would be 'why haven't you sorted out the 'flow' problem during the past 25 years'. She talks as if the problems with social care availability are nothing to do with the Labour government in Wales. As if.

Health services were in crisis well before the influx of winter ailments. What I see is a long running policy of managed decline (what Starmer accused the Civil Service of) with complementary attempts at managed expectations. After all, there is on the other side of the Channel a multitude of hospitals that could potentially be engaged to ease some of the backlog...jf the political desire was actually there that is ?

Under the blinding spotlight of an election campaign, her glaring mediocrity—especially when stacked up against Rhun—will be as obvious as a clown at a funeral. Honestly, how she landed the job is one of life’s great mysteries—right up there with crop circles and why printers never work when you’re in a rush. Creative solutions? She wouldn’t recognize one if it hit her over the head with a Quality Street tin. Speaking of which, endless photo ops with chocolates aren’t going to fix anything—unless the plan is to bribe voters with toffee pennies. And what about Jeremy Miles? Did he accidentally wander into a Labour Party blackmail dungeon, or is he just allergic to ambition? Meanwhile, Rhun’s gearing up to bulldoze through her campaign like a wrecking ball in overdrive. London Labour clearly sees the writing on the wall—and judging by their focus on 2029, they’re already packing her a parachute for a swift exit under the nearest bus.

I know the NHS gets a bad press but nobody seems to mention that there are many amazing things that have improved over the past 25 years. People are surviving conditions that 25 years ago would have naturally removed them from any list. Take Cardiac conditions for example. Having a Myocardial Infarction and being given a stent is now an everyday occurrence often resulting in people surviving to live a good active life. But unfortunately we all have to die so the down side of these successes is that we have an increasing aging population that have chronic ‘expensive’ conditions. I would imagine that this is one of the elephants in the room when it comes to sorting out the problem of patient flow. It is easier to hand out a tin of Quality Street.

This isn't restricted to Welsh hospitals. I was in Hereford County Hospital yesterday and the A & E was overwhelmed there too. Admissions by ambulance were being placed in spare treatment rooms in the Oxford Sweet for out patients. The person I was there to see told me it's happened a few times this winter.

Like most other MS she just hopes the problem will go away. Not impressed by her leadership.