ONE ​of​ ​w​est Wales’ Labour Constituency Parties has called for the Health Board not to proceed with its plans for major health service change until its long-standing financial crisis has been resolved.

On Friday, May 25, Ceredigion Constituency Labour Party passed a motion calling on the Board to think again.

In the last financial year the health board overspent its £760m budget by £70m, or ​9%​, and the board itself describes its regular overspends as ​’​growing year on year​’​.

Ceredigion Labour Party points out that although the changes in service provision which are being proposed may provide better patient care, they cannot also be expected to deliver savings if standards of care are intended to be maintained.

Dinah Mulholland, spokesperson for CCLP, said: ​”​We welcome all attempts to improve local health services. But acceptable proposals must be based on sound financial projections and dependable financial commitments.

“For instance, all three of the board’s alternative proposals for the delivery of clinical services involve the building of a new major urgent and planned care hospital `between Narberth and St Clears’, to replace other hospitals that would be closed or downgraded. Yet the Welsh Government has offered no commitment to provide capital funding for this scheme.

“We are calling for a `Stop and Fix’ approach because unless the financial arrangements are stabilised we see a very real threat that at some point during the next few years progress with major changes in service provision could be overtaken and overwhelmed by a sudden financial collapse.

“And if the board is preoccupied with delivering major changes in service provision it will be paying less attention to managing its ongoing financial problems.

“We would welcome a commitment from Hywel Dda not to proceed with any major reconfiguration of clinical services until it has secured resources to remedy the chronic and ingrained underfunding of health services in mid and west Wales. This proposed reconfiguration cannot and should not be expected to solve Hywel Dda’s long-standing problem with underfunding.”

Last week (May 23) the Welsh Health Secretary announced an annual increase of £27m in Hywel Dda’s revenue funding, but CCLP describes this as “sticking plaster” as it represents only 39% of the deficit in the last financial year.

The Health Secretary has said that this new funding puts Hywel Dda on a “fair funding basis”, but CCLP points out that if the board’s funding has only just become “fair” this raises additional questions about how much the local NHS budget has been “short-changed” in every year since the National Assembly began.

A review by the Welsh Government, as part of the Targeted Intervention support provided to Hywel Dda Health Board, found that two factors, demographics and scale, generated excess costs that were unavoidable to the Board.

The review, undertaken by Deloitte LLP, confirms the view held by many people in Ceredigion and mid and west Wales that Hywel Dda faces a unique set of healthcare challenges.

Hywel Dda is consulting the public on three alternative proposals for providing clinical care, closing and/or downgrading Withybush Hospital, Prince Philip hospital in Llanelli and Glangwili hospital in Carmarthen. In all three proposals community care would be strengthened so that more people can be treated and supported closer to home. In all versions Bronglais hospital in Aberystwyth would remain as a District General Hospital.

The 12-week public consultation began on 19 April and will end on 12 July. Ceredigion CLP is also critical of the board’s plans for obtaining the views of the public, which it points out do not include any meetings with platform speakers open to the general public. CCLP says this is unacceptable.

THE CONSERVATIVES have called for Carwyn Jones’s replacement as Labour leader in Wales to be chosen sooner rather than later.

Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Conservatives in the Assembly, has raised fears of legislative inertia and lack of progress on key projects while uncertainty continues around the identity of Mr Jones’s successor.

Mr Davies has warned that Wales faces a period of ​’​rudderless leadership​’​ in Welsh Government, if the process to select Carwyn Jones’ replacement is allowed to drag on until December.

The Conservatives say that internal wrangling within Welsh Labour over the electoral system used to elect leaders could delay a contest by months, with some Labour members calling for the introduction of ‘one-member-one-vote’.

But Mr Davies is concerned that a ​’​vacuum at the heart of Welsh politics​’​ could have serious consequences for public services in Wales.

He said: “The First Minister’s decision to stand down has created an immediate vacuum at the heart of Welsh politics, and we now face a period of rudderless leadership whilst the Labour Party works out how to elect his replacement.

“They need to get a move on, for the sake of our public services and public confidence in devolution.

“Welsh NHS waiting lists are spiralling, we have a teacher recruitment crisis, and take-home pay is the lowest in any part of the UK.

“It is simply unacceptable for the country to be left in limbo until the end of the year.

“Frankly, the majority of the public are unconcerned by the mechanism used to determine Carwyn’s replacement, but we need to see a new First Minister with a mandate to take Wales forward in the coming weeks – not months.”

Mr Davies’ words were subsequently given more force when the outgoing First Minister refused to commit the Welsh Government to its preferred ‘Black Route’ for the M4 relief road.

Speaking in First Minister’s Questions, Carwyn Jones refused to back the route, despite his government having spent millions of pounds in preparatory work for its development – and having taken that route through to public consultation.

A number of routes have been proposed, but First Minister Carwyn Jones and the Welsh Government’s favoured option has always been the ‘black route’.

In May 2016 Carwyn Jones confirmed that the Welsh Government would not support the alternative – the ‘Blue Route’.

The First Minister said at the time: “One thing I will say is we wouldn’t support the blue route. There are a number of reasons for this.

“First of all, the blue route is dual carriageway, not a six-lane motorway, and that seems to me to defeat the whole object of a new road.”

Yet, when asked to reaffirm his government’s commitment to an M4 Relief Road, the First Minister refused – even claiming that he’d never publicly expressed a preference.

Speaking outside the Chamber, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives – Andrew RT Davies – said: “It looks like the M4 relief road is going to be the first casualty of Labour’s leadership contest.
“Despite spending millions of pounds preparing for the project – and despite having repeatedly backed the black route – the First Minister has now distanced himself from taking a decision.

“This is just the first major decision that will now be parked until a new leader is in place.

“This is why we need to see a swift resolution of the Labour leadership crisis, before the sense of inertia takes hold.

“On the current timetable, the new First Minister is unlikely to be in post before Christmas – just weeks before we leave the European Union, and several months after the public inquiry into the M4 relief road has reported.

“These decisions cannot simply be parked, and the Welsh public can’t be held to ransom because the Labour Party cannot agree on how to elect a new leader.

“That’s why we need to see a new First Minister with a mandate to take Wales forward in the coming weeks – not months.”

Meanwhile, the Conservatives’ shadow spokesperson on local government, Janet Finch-Saunders has drawn attention to the potential for the First Minister’s impending departure to leave other major reforms in limbo.

Ahead of a Conservative debate on local government in the Assembly on Wednesday (April, 25), Ms Finch-Saunders, warned that the uncertainty was having a negative impact on already creaking frontline services.

She said: “Just weeks ago the Welsh Government announced its third major set of proposals to reform local government in just a few years.

“They’ve spent considerable amounts of taxpayer money, and wasted several years discussing disruptive plans which have led to a sustained period of uncertainty for local authorities.

“With the First Minister’s impending resignation you have to wonder where the latest reincarnation of forced mergers is heading – after all, there’s no certainty that the same Local Government Secretary will even be in post under a new leader.

“What is clear is that the vast majority of Welsh councils are firmly against these disruptive and counter-productive plans.

“We all want to see the cost of politics reduced, but councils are already exploring collaboration on a regional level, and we would not back mergers without the consent of local residents and taxpayers.”

A ROW has erupted following the election of Carolyn Harris MP as the new deputy leader of the Labour Party in Wales.

And the row could have an impact on the election of Carwyn Jones’s successor to the post of leader and First Minister.

In an eerie echo of the way in which the late Rhodri Morgan was defeated for leadership of Labour in Wales ​18 years ago, the membership of the party overwhelmingly backed his widow, Julie Morgan AM, but the votes of the union machine and Labour representatives went Carolyn Harris’ way.

The MP for Swansea East gained 51.5 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating Julie Morgan, Cardiff AM and former MP, to become the Welsh party’s first deputy leader.

Although Julie Morgan won a majority of party members’ votes, Carolyn Harris won amongst affiliated groups and elected representatives.

In the UK Labour Party, the leader and deputy leader are elected under one member one vote (OMOV); however, Labour in Wales has retained the Electoral College, which was widely criticised following the 2010 election for Labour leader that saw Ed Milliband returned as party leader.

There has been disquiet within the Labour Party over the system it uses for elections for some time, and the Welsh Labour Party is part of the way through a review of its Electoral College.

The vote was​ -​

Affiliated groups including trade unions:
Harris – 20.14 per cent
Morgan – 13.19 per cent

Party members:
Harris – 11.6 per cent
Morgan – 21.73 per cent

MPs and AMs:
Harris – 19.75 per cent
Morgan – 13.58 per cent

Overall:
Harris – 51.5 per cent
Morgan – 48.5 per cent

Campaigning in the deputy leadership election centred upon the system used to elect the candidates. Carolyn Harris – backed by the unions –​ ​supported the existing system, while Julie Morgan supporting a change to one-member-one-vote.

The result is likely to strengthen calls for OMOV in Welsh Labour internal elections.

There was no sign of the fight being over after the election, when Julie Morgan tweeted: “The campaign for one member one vote continues.”

Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum and a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee tweeted: ‘The process was a travesty of democracy & insults the people of Wales. The Welsh Exec deliberately chose to limit members say to ⅓, they knew what they were doing. It’s called gerrymandering’.

The timing of Carwyn Jones’ announcement is also thought to be significant, as it would now require a rule change to switch the Electoral College system – perceived as a way of stitching up elections – to a wider vote of party members.

Following Carwyn Jones’ surprise decision to stand down in the autumn, battle lines have been drawn along the method chosen to elect the new leader, with potential candidates with strong links to unions – for example, the former President of the Wales TUC and transparently ambitious Vaughan Gething – altruistically supporting the status quo; while others have called for Labour in Wales to follow the UK party system, widely thought to favour more left wing candidates – for example, Mark Drakeford, who is more popular with rank and file members.

Indeed, as the week has progressed since Carwyn Jones’s announcement, Mark Drakeford has easily racked up more than enough AM nominations to succeed him as leader. The extent of the concern that some AMs have has been the coded call for ‘a more diverse field’, hoping to throw up a ‘Stop Drakeford’ candidate.

Mid and West Regional AM Eluned Morgan is thought to be the favourite of those seeking to prevent a coronation.

Eluned Morgan is a formidable political operator and is likely to have a far wider appeal than the other alternatives to Mark Drakeford, who seem so politically similar that they could have been designed by the same committee. Whether Ms Morgan is willing to place her name forward is open to question. While a further complication is that, as a regional AM, she is not in control of her own destiny and would likely need a safe constituency base for the next Assembly elections.

Signs of support for Ms Morgan are already evident.

An online petition has been launched calling for her name to be included on the ballot for leadership candidates. The petition’s supporters say that ‘For too long women have been overlooked in Welsh politics. Despite the many movements and campaigns to bring about equality, Wales of all the UK nations is unique in that it has never elected a woman leader’.