The debate/discussion (if you can call it that) was a rehash of old an ongoing arguments and I like most watching I suspect learnt nothing new. Worse still if you’ve been following Welsh politics for the past 14 years you could bar one or two contributions have written the script for each speaker last night - even the presenter!
It was no surprise that a Welsh Labour Minister especially a Health Minister failed to appear or a Labour backbencher for that matter they would simply point to the 72% satisfaction rate in the survey as proof they were doing an excellent job and the NHS was in safe hands. The opposition are right to point out the no show but voters won’t hold it against Labour as they haven’t for 14 years.
The section on the biggest challenge facing the Welsh NHS, reorganisation was a dialogue of the deaf and rushed through and this was yet another TV Health debate in where public health was almost ignored, the only person to raise it was the health economist towards the end.
Despite no Labour or Welsh Government presence the party line was well represented by UNISON and the NHS Confederation – it’s all Westminster fault for the shrinking budget and NHS Management are doing an excellent job as always. With loyalty like that you wonder why the Welsh Government needs it own propaganda.
BBC Wales should remember that chairing a discussion and investigative journalism require different skill sets – cutting people off mid flow when they were making points is not only rude, it also deprives viewers of information.
And finally if information is key to highlighting and solving many of these problems as was mentioned by several speakers what are the Welsh NHS solutions to this?
If you missed it the discussion minus the Health Minister it’s HERE and the earlier Week In Week Out programme is HERE
Any source
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