A sobering article in Wales’ Western Mail describes the abject failure of cancer treatment in Wales. Macmillan Cancer Support warns that in the last few years the Welsh NHS, run by Labour, has been racking up records for late treatment of cancer patients. Waiting lists in May hit a record high as a fifth of the Welsh population sits in a queue for treatment. That’s compared to only one in eight across the border…

The next article over happens to be Welsh Labour’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Eluned Morgan, touting her achievements in “making our NHS services more environmentally friendly“, including scoring a “Chief Nursing Officer’s Sustainability in Nursing and Midwifery” award for one local health board. Yet another app has been created in order to use less paper. Welsh Tory Leader Andrew RT Davies tells Guido it “beggars belief” that Morgan “is more focussed on this woke nonsense” than the cancer crisis. Maybe Labour politicians should focus on treating patients as opposed to patting themselves on the back for racking up eco-awards…

Bad news for one of Sunak’s failed pledges today: NHS waiting lists. They’ve ticked up again…

In April waiting list pathways in England ticked up for the first time in seven consecutive months. It’s only a 1.4% rise from March. Pathways, of which one patient can have multiple, have risen from 7.5 million to 7.6 million from March. More bad timing for the election…

Starmer baffled Britons last night when he said he would never use private healthcare, even if a loved one desperately needed it. Just two months ago, Starmer was saying that people “should” use capacity in the private sector to bring down waiting lists. Though choosing the NHS in a situation of life and death isn’t something new for Starmer…

Two years ago he told a bizarre story in an interview with the BBC about his mother dying. Speaking of his allegiance to the NHS, he said he has his mother to thank, as when “It was very touch and go…she just held my hand and said: ‘You won’t let your dad go private, will you?'”. Odd…

Keir Starmer made a rather revealing comment in last night’s leaders’ debate, which has landed overnight as a key stumbling block for him. The two leaders were asked if they would pay for private healthcare if their loved one desperately needed it. Sunak unequivocally said yes – he would, like most people, if they could gather the funds, in order to treat their family member. Starmer was not so compassionate…

Starmer answered that he would never pay for private healthcare, ever – adding that his wife works in the NHS. The idea that Starmer would rather watch a loved one die than cough up the cash based on ideology may not quite be the win LOTO may think it is. Either it’s heartless, or it’s a lie…

Sunak’s campaign trail hasn’t got off to a good start. He admitted that he hasn’t made the progress he wished for on reducing NHS waiting lists at his first stump event in Derbyshire. Sunak’s charm offensive fell flat when he was confronted by a man who had been waiting 12 weeks for a scan, while his wife had endured a three year delay. Rishi folded:

“The area where I wish I’d made more progress is with waiting lists. A priority of mine is to cut waiting lists and we haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked, I have to be honest about that.”

A gift quote for Labour a day keeps the Tories at bay…

Since its creation, the NHS has been a key priority for most governments. More nurses, more doctors, and shorter waiting times are always promised, yet the bureaucratic institution still fails to wholly satisfy many patients. So instead they are looking elsewhere…

Since the pandemic, there’s been a whopping 30% surge in people across the UK’s four nations shelling out their own cash for private hospital care. This is despite record staffing and funding levels for the NHS, though waiting times are still not coming down. Thirty thousand more patients a week are being treated privately within the NHS in England. As is the way in a competitive market, Britons are choosing the more appealing option…

Meanwhile, the number of people turning to private GPs is skyrocketing, nearing four million, with nearly half of 18 to 24-year-olds opting for private appointments due to mounting frustrations over NHS delays. Voters are deciding that private healthcare is the more reliable option, though they are effectively paying twice for healthcare. Now give us our NHS tax opt-out…