New figures have exposed Tory smears on the NHS. The Tories have claimed that the number of Welsh patients being treated in the English NHS is rising but the latest figures reveal this not to be the case. The truth is:

• The number of Welsh patients using the NHS in England has FALLEN since 2010.

• Meanwhile, English patients using the NHS Wales are currently RISING and look set to rise again this year. 

During Health Questions in the Commons this morning, Conservative MPs claimed Welsh patients were “fleeing” to England for treatment and the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said “the NHS is happy to treat more Welsh patients”.

Yet the official figures undermine the Conservative smears by showing the number of Welsh patients treated in the English NHS has fallen 10 per cent since 2009/10. While the NHS in England deteriorates, more English patients are getting treated in the NHS in Wales.

Jamie Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said:

“David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt have been found out. They have spent years shamelessly attacking the Welsh NHS to distract from the chaos they’ve created in the NHS in England.

“It is self-serving spin at its worst and they must drop it. Patients in Wales deserve an apology for this cheap politicisation.”

Owen Smith MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, said:

“The Prime Minister set the scurrilous tone for their campaign when he described Offa’s Dyke as ‘the line between life and death’.  Welsh patients deserve better than a British Prime Minister and a UK government that denigrate the NHS in Wales in order to score points at Westminster.”

The news comes amid more proof of the NHS in England going backwards under the Tories:

• Last week, an English hospital trust on the England-Wales border was place in special measures following inspections over the summer that revealed serious levels of under-staffing and patients waiting up to 17 hours on trolleys in A&E.

• Between April and June this year, 101 English hospitals performed below the average in Wales for numbers of patients beginning treatment for cancer within two months of a GP referral. In Wales, more than 87 per cent of patients begin treatment within 62 days, compared to just 84 per cent in England.

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