Click here to read the article. 

 "After today's announcement of extra borrowing powers for Northern Ireland, the Welsh Government remains unique among UK elected bodies in not having any borrowing powers at all. Yet after facing cuts of £1.4bn to its budgets, the Welsh Government desperately needs to be able to invest in major projects to generate jobs and get the economy moving.

 "It has now been seven months since the Silk Commission recommended borrowing powers for Wales and still the Wales Office hasn't responded. I can't understand what the hold up is, and it makes you question how much influence David Jones has across Government.

 "And in sharp contrast to his procrastination over Silk, the Secretary of State seems to have wasted no time in agreeing a settlement with the Treasury ahead of the Spending Review. What is less certain is whether he pushed for a deal to support Welsh jobs and growth, or has accepted whatever the Chancellor offered him. If it's true that Wales will face a further cut of 8 per cent, then it is even more vital that borrowing powers are granted."

ENDS

“Under the Tories, when it comes to jobs and growth, the story has been one of failure. In Wales, there are a thousand more people unemployed for each of the three years of this Tory-led government, a telling indictment of George Osborne’s failed economic strategy. And among those in work, more than one in ten is under-employed, and many jobs are insecure due to continuing fears about the state of the economy.

“But you wouldn’t know it if you listen to the Tories. The Wales Office say the jobs figures are “very positive” and Iain Duncan Smith even said last week that unemployment has been a “success story” under this government.

“Rather than ducking the reality that there are now more people out of work than at the General Election, Ministers in Westminster should look to the example set by the Welsh Labour Government, which has supported 6,000 young people back into employment and attracted a year-on-year increase of 250% in the amount of inward investment coming into Wales.”

ENDS

Click here to watch Owen's speech and click here to read a transcript of the meeting.

Changes to hospital services are never less than highly controversial and the current set of proposals to re-organise services in South East Wales are no exception. Many have already engaged in the consultation process through completing the consultation booklets, attending public meetings, or through joining the rallies held across RCT. It’s vital that people continue to do so and make their voice heard. It’s also vital that local people fully understand both the proposals and the process.

To be clear, The Royal Glamorgan is neither closing nor in any danger of closing. Even if the changes proposed by the doctors who have made the recommendations were introduced, more than eighty per cent of the activity currently undertaken at the hospital would carry on as before. A&E would continue to exist and you’d still go to the Royal Glam for a broken leg or if your child had a suspected concussion. The Maternity Unit would also still exist and women would still be able to give birth at the hospital – as my own wife did for our third child.

However, if you had a really grave accident, a serious head injury, say, or if your birth was deemed likely to be problematic then you’d go instead (depending on where you lived in the constituency) to either the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend or the Heath in Cardiff, because that is where the most specialist A&E and Neo-Natal consultants would be based.

The doctors have suggested these changes for two main, practical reasons: one, they are struggling to recruit sufficient numbers of specialist consultants to staff the rotas at hospitals and, two, modern clinical wisdom is that you should try and concentrate such specialist services in fewer units so as to maximise the number of cases the doctors deal with to increase their expertise and experience. And evidence of management of stroke services in London, where this sort of re-organisation took place a few years ago, does seem to support this conclusion.

However, I know many of my constituents are concerned that getting to Cardiff or Bridgend will be more difficult than getting to Llantrisant, and those concerns are clearly far greater for people from the top end of either Rhondda Valley – and I share those concerns, especially until we get our Ambulance and admissions services working better. The good news is that this decision is not set in stone – it is a proposal – and we have the chance to question, challenge and to make sure that the eventual outcome is properly informed by local knowledge.

I’ll be at the next consultation meeting in Llantrisant Leisure Centre on Thursday 13th June at 10am. Try and get there if you can, or have a look at www.campaign4royalglam.com for more info.

ENDS

Click here to watch the interview in full. 

Responding, Owen Smith, Welsh Labour’s Shadow Welsh Secretary, said:

“David Cameron’s attack on the Welsh NHS at PMQs today is nothing more than a cynical shot at diverting attention from the Tories’ broken promises and attempted privatisation in England.

“David Cameron claims the NHS budget in Wales has been cut, but the reality is that the Welsh Labour Government has maintained spending on health at the same level, despite the Tories and Lib Dems cutting the overall Welsh budget by £1.4bn.

“This smokescreen is to be expected from a Prime Minister who has broken all his promises on the NHS. But with the best improvements in cancer survival rates across the whole of the UK, free prescriptions and ground-breaking projects to join up health and social care, Wales has an NHS to be proud of. Patients, doctors and nurses in Wales won’t be fooled; they know that the NHS is better off in Labour’s hands.

“Before he decides to make political pot-shots from the despatch box again, David Cameron should think about the 86% of clinicians that would rather work for the NHS in Wales than England.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

1. In March, David Bailey, chairman of the BMA’s Welsh GPs committee said:
“The Tories in Westminster have been making a number of political points against the Welsh Government and personally as a Welsh doctor the Welsh Government seems to be more committed to the NHS than the English Government.

2. In May, Eamonn Jessup, chairman of the North Wales Local Medical Committee said:
“It’s become more and more apparent that the English health service is moving away from Wales...English GPs are at the end of their tethers at the moment with the Government but the picture in Wales is quite different.”

3. In a 2011 poll 86% of Welsh Clinicians said they would rather work in Wales than in England under the Tories.
4. According to the 2012/13 National Survey for Wales, 92% of people were satisfied with the care they received from their GP at their last visit. Similarly, 90% of people were satisfied with the care they received at their last appointment at an NHS hospital. In England, satisfaction with the way the NHS run is just 61%.

5. On cancer, over the last 15 years Wales has experienced the fastest rate of improvement across the UK for survival rates at one and five years for all types of cancer.

6. Free prescriptions in Wales have not significantly added to the costs but has contributed to significant improvements in the management of chronic conditions:
- Emergency admissions for coronary heart disease were down by 9 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011/12.
- Emergency admissions for lung diseases were down by 16 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011/12.
- Emergency admissions for diabetes were down by 9 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011/12.

7. Wales is also leading the way in integrating health and social care, keeping people out of hospital and in their own homes for longer. See Owen Smith's article for Left Foot Forward here.

8. In England there are over 4000 fewer nurses since the general election - in Wales the numbers of nurses has stayed constant. There are more GPs working in Wales compared to 2010.

Located in Upper Boat, the Dewis Centre is a disability-led organisation which specialises in supporting disabled people with direct payments. The centre also offers an advocacy service as well as training to help people to manage their own care. Dewis operates across several local authorities in Wales, including here in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

During the visit, Mr Smith discussed the services Dewis offers with Stephen Harris, the Chief Executive as well as other trustees and workers. Following the meeting, the Ponty MP was given a tour of the premises and met staff working to help disabled people live independently.

Commenting on the visit, Owen Smith MP said:

“Dewis offers people control over their own lives and is another alternative to social care services. By supporting disabled people using direct payments, Dewis Centre is giving local people more independence and confidence in managing their own finances and helping them through advocacy. 

“It was great to see Stephen and meet the staff working hard at Dewis. Local user-led services like this are vital when the current government is making harsh changes which are impacting unfairly upon disabled people. I was pleased to see the important work Dewis is doing here in the Pontypridd constituency and will continue to work with them over the coming months and years.” 

When finished the development will be a major boost for the local economy attracting increased tourism as well as providing jobs.

Owen Smith MP, Shadow Welsh Secretary, said:

“With long term unemployment in Aberconwy 50% higher than at the general election, we need new ideas and projects like Surf Snowdonia to provide jobs for young people, in sharp contrast to the lack of ideas coming from the Tory-led Government in Westminster.

“Tourism is worth £4.2bn the Welsh economy and supports thousands of jobs. Surf Snowdonia would be a welcome addition to the attractions in North Wales and has already won the backing of local campaigners like Mary Wimbury.

“It could also provide lessons to other areas through the way it makes use of a former industrial site to combine the natural beauty of the landscape with new technology. I look forward to visiting with my family when it opens!”

ENDS