8. Plaid Cymru Debate: Reducing NHS pressures

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:25 pm on 25 January 2023.

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Photo of Rhianon Passmore Rhianon Passmore Labour 6:25, 25 January 2023

I absolutely agree with that, Jenny Rathbone; we have a whole host of different mechanisms of seeking healthcare. But this is an important discussion, and I'm going to develop it.

We know that another crucial facet of what we must address is ambulance waiting times in Wales. Nobody should die from an excessive wait for an ambulance. Now we know that new ambulance training posts are real. But it is right for us to challenge the status quo of consultants training for decades, subsidised by the state, to work, sometimes, three days a week in the private sector. Phoning 999 in an emergency should and must always be met with a rapid response. And the sight of queues of ambulances sat idle in hospital forecourts, as hospital handover waits occur, must be the exception and not the norm. Because the pressures and challenges are real for the NHS, and so are the consequences.

And so, to those of us, across this Chamber in this Senedd, who are committed to the model of the NHS as created by Labour's Aneurin Bevan, it is time for us to actually unite and not score political points on the solid principle of the NHS free at the point of care. If you believe that, and you want to fight for a free NHS, then the stakes have never, ever been so grave. The Tories are openly speculating about privatising the NHS—and actually, to be honest, have done for a very long time.