𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour’s legacy in Wales is a health service in financial “crisis” and radical action is needed to rescue the reputation of self-government, Reform UK has warned. The party is calling for health chiefs to be fired if they fail to turn around Wales’s struggling health service.

Nigel Farage’s party made history in May when it became the second-biggest party in the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd, with Plaid Cymru ousting Labour and taking the reins of Government. Reform’s shadow finance minister, Cai Parry-Jones, sounded the alarm about the state of the NHS in Wales. He warned that more than half of the Welsh Government’s day-to-day budget goes on health and social care, but six of the nation’s seven health boards had failed in their statutory duty to break even over a three-year period.

In September, auditor general for Wales, Catherine Mealing-Jones, warned there is not “a credible plan to turn it around”. Reform points to an annual NHS deficit of £199million and claims there is a “serious structural financial crisis despite billions in additional funding”.

Mr Parry-Jones said: “This is an absolute scandal. The financial mismanagement after 27 years of Labour running Wales has resulted in six of the seven health boards failing to balance their books, and a total annual deficit of almost £200million.”

He added: “The Left-wing plan of throwing more and more money into an ever-growing black hole and hoping things get better has clearly failed. The only way out of this is by ensuring proper accountability. Reform will link pay and contracts for health board leadership to performance to enforce real standards amongst senior NHS management. Failure means you’re fired.”

The financial troubles come as Wales has fallen further behind other UK nations in the OECD’s international Pisa tests for 15-year-olds. Maths and reading scores fell and, despite a slight improvement, Wales lagged behind first-place England, Northern Ireland and Scotland in science.

Mr Parry-Jones said: “From bottom-of-the-barrel Pisa rankings to economic decay, Wales has been totally let down. As a proud Welshman, it hurts to say that I am truly ashamed of what devolution has currently done to my country. The only way to redeem its reputation is with a Reform Wales government willing to grasp the nettle and make real reforms.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Like all parts of the UK and beyond, health and care services in Wales face unavoidable pressures in terms of inflation, high energy prices and increasing demand. The Welsh Government has been clear that NHS bodies in deficit must improve their positions and set out recovery plans to a sustainable position.

“As a government, we are committed to building a health and care system that is sustainable, fit for the future and remains free at the point of need. Our first 100 days plan contained several actions to strengthen the financial sustainability of the system, including setting out a roadmap to eliminate agency spending by 2030, and our programme for government is now supporting measures to boost productivity and modernise services.”