Thursday 19 June 2014

Mark Drakeford - What Planet Does He Live on ?



It has been quite a long time since I last wrote a blog entry, but reading the news headlines yesterday started me wondering about what planet the Welsh Government Health Minister - Mark Drakeford - actually lives on. Because everything I hear coming from the man's mouth beggars belief.

There has been a debate in the Senedd where Mark Drakeford was defending standards in the Welsh NHS and trying (unconvincingly) to show how the Welsh NHS is in good hands under his stewardship.

Everybody knows I am no fan of this man following his ideological crusade against eCigarettes, where despite all the evidence from esteemed medical professionals to the contrary, he is convinced that he knows better and that eCigarettes are a Gateway to smoking, a danger to health and must be stamped out at all costs.

So I decided to look back on the state of Health in Wales as has been reported in the Press this year. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take me very long to find a huge swathe of his failings. So, I decided to chronicle how well Health Services in Wales are doing under his stewardship.

Mark Drakeford states that people were “being treated faster and living longer” than the situation inherited in 1999 when the National Assembly was created. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-nhs-better-devolution-insists-7290277

One look at the following news reports paints an entirely different picture.

Now I have to ask, reading all the below headlines that have occurred in just THIS YEAR, is this a man living with his head in the sand ?

Is he actually competent for the post he holds ?

Would you trust him ?

Make your own mind on how much ‘better’ Welsh Health is under his stewardship:




1.    Number Of Patients Waiting More Than 36 Weeks For NHS Treatment Reaches a New High – Reported on 09/01/2014

Full story here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/number-patients-waiting-more-36-6483486

2.    Health Minister Mark Drakeford accused of using outdated figures in hospital closure plans – Reported on 17/01/2014


3.    Welsh ambulance response time target missed again – Reported on 30/04/2014

4.    Calls for full public inquiry into hospital care standards at Princess of Wales and Neath Port Talbot – Reported 31/01/2014

Full story here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/full-public-inquiry-call-princess-6650995

5.    WELSH patients needing hip replacements are waiting more than twice as long as people in England for their operations – Reported on 16/02/1014

Full story here: http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/11012951.Waiting_times_for_hip_replacements_set_to_go_up_again/

6.    Heart patients could be transferred from Wales to England to avoid waiting lists  - Reported on 26/02/2014


7.    Waiting lists for heart and lung surgery reach 'record high' – Reported 04/03/2104


8.    Ann Clwyd warns of 'dangerously high' death rates – Reported 05/03/2014


9.    'No compromise' on minimum nursing levels in Welsh hospitals, says Royal College of Nursing – Reported 07/03/2014


10. Judicial review to be launched against Llanelli A&E closure plans – Reported 07/03/2014


11. Nearly 1,700 operations postponed in just five months due to lack of beds – Reported on 10/03/2014


12. Wales has disproportionately lengthy waiting times compared to the rest of the UK according to Nuffield Trust – Reported on 11/04/2014



13. Cancer patients in England 7 times more likely to access cancer drugs than Welsh counterparts – Reported 01/05/2014


14. Health complaints – numbers show significant rise across Wales since 2009 – Reported 02/05/2014


15. A damning report has found 'shocking' failures of care at two Welsh hospitals – Reported 13/05/2014


16. Fresh calls for public inquiry into Welsh NHS from patients and families – Reported 20/05/2014


17. Senior doctors: Welsh GP service 'in crisis' – Reported 07/04/2014

      Full story here: http://www.itv.com/news/wales/story/2014-04-04/senior-doctors-welsh-gp-service-in-crisis/


1 comment:

  1. To be fair to Professor Drakeford, he has been very busy of late. He had to learn how to lie convincingly (still working on that), he had to learn his lines on the 'gateway, flavours, renormalisation' drivel - for he had no scientific evidence to support them, and he had to develop the skill of 'debating' when in the wrong. Give the poor guy a rest - force the clown to retire!

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