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Laura Anne Jones, who represents the Welsh Conservatives, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.

As we approach the hardest winter months, we’ll see our NHS face greater pressures than ever before. Sadly, this winter will be made all the harder after 22 years of Labour mismanagement of our Welsh NHS, which has resulted in all the wrong records being broken, with our region now facing record-breaking waiting times.

Let me just start off by saying that our NHS staff are incredible. How they cope, adapt and go above and beyond every day is, well, there aren’t enough words to thank them for all they do. It is the management of our NHS that causes concern.

The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has a target set by the Welsh Government for all A&E patients to be seen within four hours, yet just 74.8% are seen in that time. That means over a quarter of patients are having to wait over four hours, just to be seen by someone. Only 59.3% of all ‘red’ ambulance calls, the most serious in nature, are responded to within the target time of eight minutes. The list goes on. 

We clearly can’t continue in this way, the NHS is facing a very tough time across the UK, but we know that England is doing far better than Wales on several fronts – from treatment waiting lists, A&E waits, and ambulance response times – so it is only right that Welsh Government should look at what works elsewhere.

NHS England is to establish 24/7 “data-driven control centres” to provide accurate information on bed capacity in hospitals and care homes. They will be run by “clinicians and experts” who can identify pressure points and act to reduce deadly ambulance delays and lengthy waits in A&E.

Therefore, if one hospital becomes particularly busy, staff at the control centre can divert ambulances to different emergency departments. Doctors and nurses could be also moved around to the busiest sites as well.

These plans make the most of technology, and smarter ways of working, to ensure our emergency services work as best as possible for patients and staff. This should be seriously considered as a means to prevent winter pressures here.

Unfortunately, Labour are set on doing everything different to England, just for the sake of it. The Labour Welsh Government’s childish attitude to not copy best practice has meant no surgical hubs have been set up in Wales, which has left 60,000 people waiting over two years for treatment.

It’s time Labour grew up and put patients first in Wales.