Over 2500 residents have completed my health survey to date which has allowed me to gain a comprehensive view of the healthcare issues which you feel are most important to you.
The delivery of the best possible health services for the people Montgomeryshire is the most important responsibility for me as your Assembly Member and your survey responses will allow me to represent your views accurately.
Waiting Times
The Welsh Government is responsible for health services in Wales and I strongly believe that it is an injustice that Welsh patients have to wait longer for operations than residents just over the border in England. Whereas the maximum waiting time in England is 18 weeks, in Wales, 95% of patients must be seen within 26 weeks with the remainder being seen within 36 weeks.
I believe that patients ought to receive treatment based on clinical need regardless of their country of residence but as a result of the different policy priorities of the Welsh Government and the UK Government, Welsh and English patients are not treated on an equal basis.
I believe that it is iniquitous for this postcode lottery to determine the quality of care which patients receive and in my view, no Welsh patient should be treated like a second class citizen compared to their English counterparts.
Cancer Treatment
I’m pleased that my own party, the Welsh Conservatives, have committed to protecting health spending. As the only party committed to protecting the health budget here in Wales, we would invest in frontline services and boost access to services, including the development of a £100 million Cancer Patients’ Fund.
From the results of the survey, many of you feel that widening access to modern cancer drugs is the most important priority. I have long campaigned for the Welsh Government to establish a Cancer Treatments Fund here in Wales to improve access to modern, life extending cancer medication and radiotherapy treatments; and to develop a network of mobile cancer treatment units so that cancer patients who currently face long round-trips for treatment can access this closer to home.
Clinicians should decide whether a patient should have access to a particular medicine, which could save or extend their life, not Welsh Government politicians. It is a disgrace that some patients in Wales are being recommended courses of treatment by their oncologists, but then denied them because Ministers refuse to grant access to cancer medicines, which are readily available in other parts of the UK.
Local Access to Services
There is also a deep frustration among the majority of respondents that access to healthcare is moving further away from communities in Montgomeryshire as services are centralised in more densely populated areas, meaning that people have to travel huge distances. I believe in the common sense approach that NHS services should be delivered as close as possible to home to give patients the confidence that the NHS will be there for them in their time of need – this is why I have consistently called for services to be retained and strengthened at Shrewsbury, Bronglais and Wrexham Maelor hospitals and I’ve called for community hospitals in Montgomeryshire to be upgraded, so that people can access immediate and specialist treatment.
I’m therefore pleased that Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has finally confirmed that it intends to maintain consultant-led maternity services at Wrexham Maelor Hospital. This is a victory for common sense and I am pleased that the Health Board has finally listened to the concerns of campaigners, clinicians and the public who opposed these plans. The uncertainty surrounding the future of these services has been extremely unsettling for staff, mums-to-be and their families and I’m glad that this matter has now been resolved.
Also, as we await the outcome of the NHS Future Fit programme, which is due to reach conclusions on changing the current model of healthcare which serves Shropshire and Mid Wales by Spring 2017, I will be campaigning to ensure that we receive the best possible outcome for residents in Montgomeryshire.
GP Appointments
Finally, many of you expressed a view that prompt access to GP appointments was most important to you. The recruitment and retention of GPs is rapidly becoming a crisis for the NHS across the United Kingdom and I recently met with GPs and Powys Teaching Health Board to discuss the issue of GP recruitment in Mid Wales. There are currently five surgeries in Montgomeryshire attempting to recruit GPs. As a result of the retirement of a number of GPs, several practices are having to make changes and I know that all of the practices are working hard to ensure that the high level of clinical care is not compromised.