For a Welsh Government that stands up for the NHS

Under the Welsh Labour government, dozens of hospitals have been closed. The number of beds since 2008 have been cut by 21% which means that Wales has the lowest number of intensive care beds per person in western Europe – lower even than NHS England under the Tories.

NHS staff need to be supported and retained. Incredibly, newly-trained Welsh paramedics are being turned away and told to find jobs abroad, while patients wait hours for an ambulance. NHS health visitors are having to take strike action to be placed on the correct pay band. And health professionals are leaving the NHS in droves, worn down by overwork and stress.

Welsh Trade Unionist and Socialist candidates say:

• Reverse all cuts to the NHS since 2010.
• Restore the loss of hospital beds.
• We need a crash training programme to train doctors and nurses – promise every medical student, nursing student and medical professional student free education and bursaries in exchange for a promise to work in the Welsh NHS for ten years.
• We need an expansion in the number of beds, ambulances and paramedics available to reduce emergency waiting times.
• A&E provision must be returned to local hospitals and the number of intensive care beds returned to the pre-austerity levels.
• End privatisation of NHS services and nationalise the pharmaceutical and NHS supply industries.