We'll prioritise NHS waits over reform, says Morgan

Eluned Morgan says long NHS waiting lists "have to be our priority at the moment"

Eluned Morgan has said her government has a strategy to radically reform the Welsh NHS but the current priority is getting long waiting lists down.

The first minister said her new Health Secretary, Jeremy Miles, appointed in a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, will be supported by all Welsh ministers in tackling NHS problems.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned NHS England is in a “critical condition” and must “reform or die”. Morgan said that the plan was to invest more in primary care and digital services in Wales but that was “difficult” while tackling record high waiting lists is the priority.

Plaid Cymru called for a "more strategic" approach.

In a speech on Thursday, Sir Keir responded to a highly critical government-commissioned report on NHS England which found that "ballooning" waiting times and delays getting emergency treatment are costing lives.

He proposed three key areas of reform: transitioning to a digital NHS, moving more care from hospitals to communities, and focusing efforts on prevention over sickness.

The prime minister described Labour's new 10-year health plan for England, to be published in the coming months, as "the biggest reimagining of the NHS" since it was formed in 1948.

For her part, Morgan told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast "a clear programme" for the Welsh NHS had also been developed with experts, and she "had no doubt" that this would be where Sir Keir's plans in England would end up.

"It will be about getting into the prevention space, making sure you put money into primary care, and those areas to stop people getting ill in the first place, and making sure there was massive digital and technological transformation," she said.

"That's what our strategy says, but it's difficult to do that when you've got long waiting lists that have to be our priority at the moment."

Plaid Cymru said the Welsh NHS was "on its knees" after 25 years of Labour rule.

Plaid's deputy leader in the Senedd, Delyth Jewell, called on the Welsh government to be "more strategic to finally get to grips with the biggest issues facing our health service".

“As we’ve seen in England, we need an urgent independent investigation into the performance of NHS Wales to understand the scale of the issues and to take immediate steps to fixing our health service," she said.

On Wednesday, in a Welsh government cabinet reshuffle, Morgan announced that Miles, Vaughan Gething's, former leadership rival, was returning to government as health secretary.

Morgan, who held the health brief herself for three years before she replaced Gething as first minister in August, appointed former first minister Mark Drakeford as interim health secretary for the past five weeks.

Drakeford has been given a permanent job as finance secretary.

Miles was one of four cabinet members who forced Gething to resign in the summer by quitting his cabinet, following months of rows over Gething's campaign donations and the sacking of a minister.

Jeremy Miles lost to Vaughan Gething in the Welsh Labour leadership contest in March.

Winter fuel payments

Morgan also told Radio Wales that no one in the Labour Party was “comfortable” with the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s plan to restrict winter fuel payments to only those pensioners receiving pension credit.

"It’s a difficult decision and the chancellor has to make tough choices because of the legacy she’s been left by the Tory government,” she said.

"A lot people in Wales are upset about this but tough decisions have to be made."

The first minister said the Welsh government could not make up the difference and was urging people who were eligible for the support to apply for it.

"There are tens of thousands of people in Wales who haven’t signed up for the pension tax credit, which would mean they are eligible for this winter fuel allowance," she said.

Pension credit, introduced by Labour's Gordon Brown when he was chancellor in 1997, was based on the idea that older people would be left exposed and at increased risk if they could not pay their fuel bills at the coldest time of the year.

This year, the winter fuel payment totals £200 for those on certain benefits and born before 22 September 1958.

For those born before 23 September 1944 and on certain benefits, it is worth £300.

How many in Wales are losing winter fuel payments?

In Wales, around half a million people over the age of 66 will no longer be entitled to winter fuel payments.

There are approximately 160,000 people in Wales estimated to be eligible for pension credit, which will qualify them for winter fuel payments, but only around half of them claim it.