Ann Clwyd must admit who have been running the NHS in Wales.

I haven't been well  lately and have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes  but its possible I may have a recurrence of the Acromegaly I suffered from twenty years ago where a tumour on my  pituitary gland produces excess growth hormone that time giving me Type 1 Diabetes which was cured after a operation.

I was living in London at the time sand received excellent and very swift healthcare.and operated on in less than a month after being diagnosed 

Though it may have been that the operation was pushed forward to see if it would  cure the diabetes which was the happy result.

So I have more than a passing interest twenty years later in the State of the NHS in Wales 

Making doctors appointments have been horrendous. The staff at my local practise have done their very best   but are clearly overwhelmed and it can take up to two weeks to make an appointment if you wish to see the doctor you saw last time.

So its interesting that according to the Wasting Mule patients from Wales have given evidence in Westminster about the way the way the NHS has handled their complaints.

In March   Cynon Valley Labour MP Ann Clwyd was appointed by David Cameron to chair a major review of the way the NHS deals with complaints from patients and their relatives.

Although the review specifically relates to the NHS in England, Ms Clwyd took the view that it would be worth hearing from Welsh patients about their experiences too.


Ms Clwyd said:

 “It was an amazing session. There were 10 people from England and 10 people from Wales and many of the experiences they spoke about were very similar.
“They spoke of a lack of care and a lack of compassion, and of letters they had received from complaints departments that were insulting. Sometimes the language used by NHS officials responding to complaints is simply not understood by lay people. There’s a need for plain English.

“I wanted to have people from Wales present because around 25% of the 2,500 letters and emails I’ve received since going public with my concerns have come from Wales
Which is fair enough  

Western Mail 4th July 2013 

Which seems fair enough but it may give the impression that problems with the NHS in Wales lies with the Westminster Government and not under the Labour administration in the Welsh Assembly. Who have been in charge of our health here for 14 years.

Will Ann  Clwyd criticise the Assembly Government as well as the Westminster one in her report.?

Indeed  Ann  Clwyd seems to have only become aware  after seeing  the  "almost callous lack of care" with which nurses treated her husband as he lay dying in the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

She has ben a MP since 1984 surely she must have had hundreds of correspondence and Surgeries when constituents have complained about their own experience of the NHS.

I have nothing but sympathy for her experience as she saw the horrendous treatment of a loved one . But why has she spoken out for the hundreds of constituents who have had similar experiences before?

I wish her well in her enquiry but I hope she points blame to the right places and the right people and I hope all our elected representatives do not take up  causes only after they had experienced  poor treatment  and listen to that of their constituents and raise these issues even when it may embarrass  the governing party which they well may be a member.