Thursday, 27 October 2011

A little early for humbug

It must be quite a problem having only five AMs to deal with three times as many portfolios. The inevitable outcome is something resembling the archetypal mid-west town where the sheriff is also the local undertaker and feed-store owner. You may cover all the bases but quality suffers in the application.

So its understandable that Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams would prefer voicing headline-grabbing populist "concerns" at an overall reduction in hospital beds than engage in debate on changing health care demographics over the last decade.

Earlier this year, the Welsh Lib Dem manifesto stated that the party, if elected to power, would be

Making sure that hospitals are seen as the last resort – prevention and community treatment should be where most healthcare takes place. We will prioritise investment in community facilities to ensure that people get better treatment and at a lower cost.

Yet nowhere in the document is there a commitment to introduce more hospital beds. Nor is Kirsty making any such pledge now. Ho hum.

2 Comments:

MirrorMan said...

If they want to double up then why not copy the example of former Tory health spokesman Mark Simmonds who is is earning more than £400 an hour advising a company set to cash in on the Coalition’s NHS reforms.

Simmonds, who was a minister when the controversial reforms were drawn up, is paid £50,000 a year to work just 10 hours a month as “strategic adviser” to Circle Health, the first firm to win control of an NHS hospital.

The cash comes on top of his £65,000 salary.

Matt Samms said...

Strangely, there's nothing in there either which decries an overall reduction in beds. Did it take them a decade to notice?