Detailed health and social care planpublished at 11:36 BST 14 April
11:36 BST 14 April
Jenny Rees
Wales health correspondent
While there are several manifesto pledges aimed at health and social care, very few come with detailed explanations about how they will be achieved.
For example, there’s a bold promise to guarantee that 100% of cancer patients will start treatment within the target of 62-days from an urgent referral, with the introduction of a national cancer plan.
What makes it bold is that the current target is 75% but the achieved figures have languished around 57% for some time, and there’s little detail about what a plan would contain to make that leap.
Likewise a promise of guaranteeing everyone with an urgent dental need access to an NHS dentist doesn’t set out how that will be done, at a time when a new contract has meant some in the profession are handing back their NHS contracts.
However, their manifesto does include a tangible investment in 5,000 new or refurbished “nursing-care placements” to help “end corridor care” and “bring down waiting lists” suggesting that these placements would offer a step-down facility to allow more patients to be discharged from overcrowded hospitals.