Llandudno District General Hospital.
Last week I went along to a fact finding visit regarding the current range of health service provision that is carried out at this site.
For many years and long before I was your elected Assembly Member I have campaigned robustly to fight to save services here. Despite many promises by the Welsh Labour Government NOT to downgrade services in our local district hospitals, we have all witnessed the removal of the Breast Care surgery, Coronary Care unit, the Accident and Emergency dept and the Endoscopy unit.
I was however very reassured when visiting once again. The redevelopment plans to improve our Minor Injuries Unit is progressing well and I was particularly impressed by the range of supportive therapies now available at this site.
On speaking to senior clinicians present, it is very evident that they themselves are committed to ensuring that Llandudno DGH features strongly as a suitable site for a wide ranging level of health services available, serving many of those living locally and further afield. The recently refurbished Rheumatology department is a valuable asset and I was fascinated to be given a demonstration of the diagnostic video conferencing that takes place across other hospitals in North Wales from this site, so ably worked by Dr Cartilage and his team.
Cancer waiting times:
In spite of his promises cancer waiting time targets have not been met once since Carwyn Jones became First Minister.
Receiving a cancer diagnosis is a distressing experience for a patient and their loved ones and it is critical to their wellbeing and recovery chances that they begin treatment as soon as possible so delays, along with difficulties in accessing modern cancer drugs available elsewhere in the UK, are a huge concern to many.
Welsh cancer patients deserve better. Instead of making record-breaking cuts to the Welsh NHS, Labour Ministers must get a grip of this situation and take immediate action to turn this performance around.
Concerns are running very high about our health service in Wales. The Welsh Labour Government has wreaked immense damage on our Welsh public services by the cuts to our Health budget and more recently to our Local Authorities. Whilst the recent additional cash for the Welsh NHS is welcome, it pales into comparison the damage incurred as years of record-breaking health budget cuts imposed by Labour have seen hospital services downgraded and centralised, beds axed and waiting time targets missed, and their constant refusal to set up a Cancer Treatments Fund has seen patients forced to travel to other parts of the UK to access life-extending medicines.
Future of Devolution.
Welsh Conservatives are open minded to a degree about the future of further devolution. Any changes to the constitutional settlement must be focused on improving the lives of the people of Wales – and not playing to politicians’ egos.
Change must be driven by the people.
There is no question that the Scotland referendum has been a moment of constitutional trauma for our country. But it has been healthy and encouraging to see the level of care and interest that each nation of the UK takes in each other’s future. There is now a joint endeavour to work to improve our constitution. We must find a way to foster unity and stability, while enabling the ambitions and aspirations of each nation to be satisfied.