Health ‘biggest issue’ for Welsh assembly election

Last Updated: March 1, 2016By

No prizes for guessing why health scored so highly in this BBC poll – it’s because David Cameron keeps banging on about the Welsh NHS.

What a shame he can’t be honest and admit it is performing better than its English counterpart.

The low number of people saying the Assembly should be abolished should be enough to put this question to bed for the duration (although there are some here in Brecon and Radnorshire who just won’t accept ‘no’ as an answer).

And then there’s the vexed issue of police and crime commissioners. What’s the point of them if nobody even knows who they are, let alone what they do?

Health is the biggest single issue that could affect the way people vote in the assembly election, a BBC Wales poll has suggested.

One third of the people questioned said it was their main concern in the run-up to polling day in May.

Just under a fifth put jobs at the top of their list, while 14% said immigration was their priority.

The economy (11%), education (10%), Europe (4%) and crime (2%) were the other priorities of voters.

These were the findings of BBC Wales’ annual St David’s Day poll, carried out by ICM.

On immigration, just under half of respondents (47%) thought the numbers moving from outside of the UK into Wales was too high, while 37% thought it was just about right and 8% thought it was too low.

Plans to give income tax powers to Wales were supported by just over half of those questioned (54%), with 42% saying only the UK government should have control.

On powers for the Welsh assembly, 43% said it should have more while 30% thought its current powers were sufficient.

At the other ends of the scale, 13% wanted to see the assembly abolished and Wales governed directly from Westminster, while 6% supported independence.

The survey had sobering news for police and crime commissioners (PCCs) due to be elected on the same day as AMs.

Nearly nine out of 10 people (89%) failed to name any of Wales’ current PCCs – one in ten could name one commissioner, while only 1% could name two.

Source: Health ‘biggest issue’ for Welsh assembly election – BBC News

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4 Comments

  1. mohandeer March 1, 2016 at 4:32 pm - Reply

    “What a shame he can’t be honest and admit it is performing better than its English counterpart.”
    Happy to pass the good news on, but is there any evidence to back this up with? It’s not that I don’t believe you, I just have no articles previously that suggest the opposite of what the presstitutes have been claiming.

  2. Florence March 1, 2016 at 7:17 pm - Reply

    There is also the OECD report, this month, so totally up to date, which shows the performance of NHS Wales is no different to the rest of the countries in the UK.

    The link below to the BBC report on the OECD report is tainted by the claim from an “un-named source” to the BBC
    “But one senior official told BBC Wales that the quality across the UK is “not that good” and “fairly mediocre” with great policies not being translated into great practices.”.

    So an unsubstantiated, untraceable “opinion” is presented by the BBC that supports the unfounded Cameron& Hunt attacks on the Labour Assembly.

    It should be noted that the funding for Wales NHS is a lot less per head at £1,900 while areas in England of areas with similar demographics and needs is £2,100 per person per annum. The funding from Westminster has been the main problem with the NHS in Wales, as is recruitment. The Labour-led Assembly in Cardiff has done all it can to protect the NHS budget, but can only work within the Westminster funding. At present there is a dispute about this, where it is thought that Wales is underfunded by £300 million pa, which would allow a greater spend on the NHS.

    Another difference between England and Wales is that Wales have not cut back as hard on the social care budget, which in England has been slashed to shunt money in to the NHS there.

    Guardian report Oct 2014 good for a full explanation of the political situation with Hunt
    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/21/labour-attacks-tory-war-nhs-wales

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35533172

    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/nhs-wales-no-better-worse-10876705

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