Barely a day goes by without some new shocking health statistic or sad story making the headlines, such as over 13,000 patients waiting more than nine months to start any treatment, a 19% fall in the number of beds, ambulance response targets routinely missed, and, ominously, the vast majority of local health boards—11 out of 17 district general hospitals—reporting high mortality rates on RAMI, some as high as 115. Ann Clwyd MP in her report said that high mortality rates are a smoke signal that something that is wrong. These figures alone are or should be a tipping point in this debate.
I would, at this stage, like to endorse the recognition of our superb medical and nursing staff across Wales, and, as Elin Jones AM said, the vast majority of good care that is available. However, an inquiry would support this dedicated team of staff that we have across Wales. Minister, with 30 deaths from Clostridium difficile in four months in just one hospital, 61 cases of C. difficile per 100,000 patients in Wales compared with 27 in England, with 152 patients in south Wales dying while waiting for cardiac surgery, and a 72% rise in cancelled operations, I ask you, in all honesty: if you do not agree with our call for an inquiry, would you tell me and this Chamber what would be the catalyst that would persuade you to hold an inquiry? Can you please state today how low the bar needs to be before you acknowledge that something is wrong?
The Welsh Conservatives are in no way laying blame on our front-line staff. We must all pay tribute to our nurses, healthcare assistants, consultants and staff for the wonderful work that they do. However, there is a catalogue of failure across our health boards in Wales, and, where there is blame and where there is failure, it must be addressed. The Keogh inquiry identified that high mortality rates were not usually attributed to a rogue surgeon or a single speciality, but rather usually stemmed from a combination of failings likely to be experienced in all hospitals.
The Wales Audit Office report into Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board’s management structure resonated with me in highlighting a fundamental disconnect between the ward and the board. One of the significant findings of the report involved detecting a number of quality issues of which the board was simply unaware. The Keogh inquiry also found that financial pressures, where hospitals and trusts needed to make large savings, were an area in need of dramatic improvement. This parallels the situation in Wales, where the Auditor General for Wales identified that many boards were relying on unsustainable one-off savings to meet targets. Local health boards operate in Wales with one nurse for every seven patients on average during day shifts, which echoes the Keogh inquiry’s identification of the positive correlation between in-patient to staff ratios and patient mortality. Further to this, the Royal College of Nursing highlighted the urgent need for recruitment challenges in the Welsh NHS to be addressed, mirroring once again Keogh’s findings of high rates of sickness absence and a reliance on agency staff—another direct correlation. The evidence is unambiguous. The failings identified by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh are many of those that we face in Wales. It is not enough to continue addressing these failings on an ad hoc basis. Decisive action must be taken now to root out aspects in need of desperate attention.
I find it rather troubling that the First Minister can cite costs as reasons not to act, yet can sanction burning through £1.6 million for a martial arts centre that never opened, £1.2 million on the failed Tŷ Siamas, £36 million on the redundant Genesis 2, or an eye-watering £32 million on an airport. Minister—and First Minister, wherever you are—you cannot seriously put a price on people’s health and, ultimately, their lives. The Welsh Conservatives’ call for a Keogh-style inquiry is not a matter of bluster, not a matter of partisanship and not a matter of point scoring. It is a recognition that there is something wrong with our Welsh NHS. Please, rise above party politics and listen, all Members, irrespective of party affiliation, to our call, and to the call of the highly-respected Ann Clwyd MP, who recently has bared her own soul to point out the failings and has echoed our calls. You owe it to the people of Wales, you owe it to this Chamber and, most of all, you owe it to those working day in, day out, in your failed health service.