Labour has ‘Broken’ the NHS in Wales, Claims Plaid Cymru as Party Sets Hopes on Government

Labour has failed the National Health Service in Wales, the leader of Plaid Cymru claimed as the Welsh Parliament kicked off a new term on Tuesday (17 September). 

Rhun ap Iorwerth, who leads the pro-independence party Plaid Cymru, is focusing on the state of the NHS in Wales as the party aims to significantly boost its seat haul at the next Senedd elections in 2026. 

The party has 12 out of 60 seats in the Welsh Parliament (Senedd) and is becoming more vocal in its opposition to Labour after a cooperation agreement with the governing party broke down in May. That decision came amid a leadership crisis affecting then-First Minister Vaughan Gething. Gething was eventually forced to resign over a political donation scandal, with former health minister Eluned Morgan replacing him in August. 

In May, waiting lists for hospital treatment hit new record highs in Wales, according to official figures reported by the BBC. 

That month there were 611,500 patients waiting for over 787,900 treatments to take place, both record figures. 

Average hospital waits are significantly longer than in England, though as has been noted: “A simple comparison between Wales and England does not take into account that the population of Wales on the whole is older poorer and sicker than across the border – meaning an increase demand for care and an extra burden on the health service.”

But ap Iorwerth told journalists on Tuesday that Labour, which has been in Government for 25 years in Wales, “has had its chance and hasn’t delivered.”

“Our focus over the next 18 months until the next Senedd election will be to hold the Labour Government to account and show people there’s a choice. They can vote for new leadership, one that will stand up for Wales, attract wealth, foster new skills, and raise education standards,” he said. 

Tensions are also fraught between senior NHS leaders and the new First Minister, who said over the weekend she planned to pressure health board bosses “who are paid significant sums of money” to get to grips with the treatment backlog. 

Responding to the comments made by the First Minister on Politics Wales, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation Darren Hughes said: “Everyday Chief Executives and managers across the NHS lead large complex organisations with thousands of staff who are working harder and delivering more care than ever before…  

“The First Minister knows all too well from her time as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care that the NHS is treating more people than ever before and that there are a range of factors impacting on the rate of elective recovery.  Waiting lists cannot and must not be considered in a silo but as part of the whole health and care system, across primary care, community care, mental health services and social care.”

He added that the Welsh NHS struggled to discharge medically fit patients from hospital due to the “immense pressures” in social care. 

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“In some hospitals 20% of beds are unavailable as patients wait to leave hospital. This is like trying to run the NHS with one hand tied behind your back. We’re doing all we can to work with local authority leaders and care providers, but the First Minister must be open about the scale of the challenge and what’s needed to put it right,” Hughes said. 

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said Morgan was “deflecting blame” onto health service leaders: “You must accept that the buck stops with you. Labour needs to accept they broke the NHS in Wales…The situation here is even worse than in England.” 

His party is calling for a “public reprimand” from FM Eluned Morgan to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for cutting Winter Fuel payments to pensioners and maintaining the two-child welfare cap. 

“Clear red water between Labour in Wales and Keir Starmer is in short supply and unless the First Minister is more vocal and acting with real intent in standing up to UK Labour Government decisions which drive pensioners into poverty and public services into the ground, the well will be dry,” Rhun ap Iorwerth added. 

Asked about his ambitions for the next Senedd elections, ap Iorweth said: “We believe Plaid Cymru can be the largest party in 2026. It’s up to the people of Wales, but it’s clear the choice is between Labour and us. We’re putting forward a program for the Government as the only other party that can become the largest party.” 

Plaid Cymru holds 12 seats to the Conservatives’ 16, and Labour’s 30, in a completely divided Senedd. Liberal Democrats have one MS, and one Labour Senedd member is currently suspended and sitting as an independent, after allegedly leaking messages from the former First Minister Vaughan Gething (she strongly denied the claims). 

Last week, PM Starmer said there would be no more money for the NHS in England without reform. Health is devolved in Wales, but UK-wide funding formulas mean that increases or decreases in spending in England affect Wales’ funding settlement from the UK Treasury. 

Keir Starmer told the King’s Fund health think tank last Thursday: “The NHS is at a fork in the road. And we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands. Don’t act and leave it to die; raise taxes on working people or reform to secure its future. Working people can’t afford to pay more. So it’s reform or die.

“So let me be clear from the outset, what reform does not mean. First, it does not mean abandoning those founding ideals. Of a public service, publicly funded, free at the point of use….Reform does not mean just putting more money in.”

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