In Wales online on Oct 17C 2014:<\/p>\n
We cannot trust the Department for Health’: Carwyn Jones attacks Whitehall in astonishing blast<\/a><\/p>\n Wales First Minister has accused the Department for Health in London of being too politicised and said that Wales could not work with it.<\/p>\n Mr Jones made the blunt comments during an exclusive interview with the Western Mail in which he defended his administration\u2019s running of the NHS against attacks from opposition parties and professional groups like the British Medical Association.<\/p>\n In the first part of the interview, Mr Jones spoke about his hope of rebuilding trust in politicians and countering the threat of UKIP<\/p>\n The First Minister referred to a story we ran last week in which Monmouth Conservative MP David Davies criticised the Welsh Government for allegedly \u201cblocking\u201d a comparative study of the NHS in the four UK nations <\/a>to be carried out by the respected international organisation, the OECD.<\/p>\n The Welsh Government said it wasn\u2019t prepared to participate in the study, and put off a visit to Wales by OECD officials, when the Department of Health said it planned to use statistics in the draft report in next year\u2019s general election campaign.<\/p>\n The Welsh Government said such statistics in the section on Wales would be \u201cunverified\u201d before it confirmed their accuracy.<\/p>\n Such concerns follow attacks by the Conservatives on the NHS in Wales over longer waiting times and cross-border issues which see some patients in Wales deprived of drugs they could be prescribed in England.<\/p>\n Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps has made it clear that his party will be drawing attention to the Welsh NHS\u2019s perceived inadequacies during the run-up to May\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n Referring to the OECD story, Mr Jones said: \u201cScotland and Northern Ireland are as annoyed as we are. There was an agreement that this would be a four-nation assessment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Health refused to give an assurance that they wouldn\u2019t use unverified figures in the general election.<\/p>\n \u201cSo ourselves, Scotland and Northern Ireland said \u2018let\u2019s follow the usual process here and embargo the figures until after the general election\u2019. They wouldn\u2019t do it \u2013 that\u2019s how politicised the Department of Health has become.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve said that if they don\u2019t sort this out, we\u2019ll go ahead ourselves and have an OECD assessment [commissioned by us] rather than wait for them and the political games they\u2019re playing. Hey presto \u2013 the story was fed to a Conservative MP.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Health, I\u2019m afraid, we do not trust at all. It\u2019s the most politicised department of any department of Whitehall. They have form on this \u2013 they did it on veterans\u2019 health. We can\u2019t work with them, frankly. We could not share anything confidential with them. They would leak it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Health did not wish to respond to the First Minister\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n Last month Mr Jones dismissed calls from the BMA for an independent inquiry into the state of the NHS in Wales.<\/p>\n Speaking to AMs, he said people he knew in the medical profession did not share the BMA\u2019s belief that the health service in Wales was facing \u201cimminent meltdown\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked who were the people he\u2019d sought a reaction from over the comment, Mr Jones said: \u201cWhat I said was that I knew a lot of medical students when I came to work in Cardiff {as a barrister}, and as a result of that I now know a lot of consultants and GPs, and I did take the views of a number of them.<\/p>\n \u201cI think use of the phrase \u2018imminent meltdown\u2019 was unfortunate. It hasn\u2019t happened and I don\u2019t think it will happen. I very much welcome the fact that in the discussions which have taken since and the public pronouncements they have made the BMA has emphasised their willingness to work with the Welsh Government. These things happen from time to time, but we want to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Jones said he didn\u2019t accept the need for the sort of inquiry the BMA had called for.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThey\u2019re asking for an inquiry into their own members, if they think about it. When particular issues have surfaced, like [concerns over the treatment of patients at] the Princess of Wales Hospital [in Bridgend], for example, we have conducted investigations into that. But there are no grounds to have a full inquiry into the NHS or the practice of doctors in the NHS in Wales.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were management problems at the Princess of Wales \u2013 there\u2019s no question about that. There\u2019s a new team in there now. What was important was that there was an investigation into what had happened. People were able to and they did take part in that investigation, and that has identified the problems. It was said that spot checks have to take place around Wales, and that\u2019s been done.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Jones said: \u201cWe have a health service, and it\u2019s true across the UK, where demand ever increases. Keeping up with that demand is always a challenge and we\u2019ve met that challenge this year by finding more money for the health service \u2013 that much is true. But if you look at the increase in demand over the last decade \u2013 A&E attendances have gone up by 70%.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the Ambulance Trust, for example, it\u2019s true to say that they\u2019ve fallen short of their target, but in comparison to this time last year, they\u2019re carrying more people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rising demand in the NHS is a challenge for us, but also for Scotland, for England and Northern Ireland as well. For us in Wales we have to make sure that we fund the NHS to a level where people in Wales would want, but it does of course mean there are difficult decisions to be made elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether he was worried by cases where people living in Wales complained about not being able to get access to certain drugs or medical procedures that would be available to them if they lived across the border in England, Mr Jones said there were drugs like Abraxane, for example, that were available in Wales but not in England.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s quite common for us, of course, to pay for people from Wales to pay for particular medical procedures in England, because that\u2019s where the centres of specialisation are. No-one is suggesting that the Welsh NHS should be entirely self-contained and that nobody should get treatment elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at cancer, for example, we do far better in terms of cancer treatment than England. We get drugs more quickly than in England. There are cancer drugs available in Wales that are not available in England \u2013 and the same is true the other way round.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Jones said the method of assessing whether particular drugs should be available was being reviewed.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe want to make sure it\u2019s fair across the whole of Wales,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The First Minister denied he had become a \u201cconstitutional obsessive\u201d, preoccupied with what powers the Assembly should have rather than the bread and butter issues that concern real people.<\/p>\n He has been criticised for this by Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies, who used a speech to tell him: ‘Stop talking about more powers and sort the Welsh NHS out’<\/a><\/p>\n Mr Jones said: \u201cNo. I\u2019ve become obsessive, I suppose, about a UK that stays together. If you look at what happened in Scotland, there\u2019s no way you can argue that things are going to go back to what they were before. From my point of view I want the UK to have a new structure \u2013 one that keeps the UK together, one that accommodates the different nationalities in the UK, but one that gets the balance right between solidarity and autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Wales online on Oct 17C 2014: We cannot trust the Department for Health’: Carwyn Jones attacks Whitehall in astonishing blast Wales First Minister has accused the Department for Health in London of being too politicised and said that Wales … Continue reading