Everything Mabon ap Gwynfor said in his speech to annual conference

Health spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor's speech to annual conference in full.

Ydych chi wedi cael profiad sydd wedi newid eich bywyd? 

Wyddoch chi,  sefyllfa ble mae un foment mewn hanes wedi newid holl gwrs eich bywyd?  

Dw’i wedi. 45 mlynedd yn ol i fis Mawrth diwethaf fe ddigwyddodd rhywbeth wnaeth newid cwrs fy mywyd i. 

Roeddwn i heb fy ngeni ar y pryd ac yn  ddim mwy na hanner maint fy nwrn yng ngroth fy Mam, pan gafodd hi anffawd yn Neuadd Sant Pedr, Caerfyrddin. Anffawd oedd yn golygu ei bod bron a fy ngholli.  

Cafodd ei brysio i’r Ysbyty yng Nglangwili, ac yno, a minnau ddim hyd yn oed yn ymwybodol o fy modolaeth, y does i ar draws yr NHS gyntaf, wrth i’r meddygon a’r nyrsus yno fynd ati i achub fy mywyd bach, bregus, i.  

Mae’n saff dweud, heb eu hymroddiad, eu harbenigedd, a’u cariad nhw yna fyswn i ddim yma yn sefyll o’ch blaen chi Heddiw.  

Mewn gwirionedd, rwy wedi cael sawl achos i ddiolch i’r NHS ers hynny, credwch chi fi!  

Mae gan bob un ohonom ni yma reswm i ddiolch i’r NHS yn ein gwahanol ffyrdd. 

Ond mae rhywbeth wedi mynd o’i le. 

Bedair mlynedd yn ol roedd gweithlu’r gwasanaeth iechyd yn gweithio hyd eithaf eu gallu i achub bywydau yn wyneb yr haint mwyaf marwol sydd wedi wynebu dynoliaeth mewn canrif, a nifer anghymesur o’r gweithlu iechyd wedi marw o’r haint. Gwta ddwy flynedd arol y gwaith arwrol yma roedd degau o filoedd o’r gweithlu ar streic. 

Sut ddaru ni gyrraedd y fath sefyllfa? 

Roedden nhw’n gweithredu er ein lles ni. A pha syndod eu bod nhw’n pryderi am ein lles ni pan fo rhestrau aros ar eu hyrraf erioed, gyda nifer o bobl yn dioddef poen a dirywiad yn ansawdd eu bywyd? Mae bron i un o bob pump ohonom ni yng Nghymru bellach ar restr aros am driniaeth feddygol. 

Mae bron i hanner cleifion canser Cymru ddim yn derbyn eu triniaeth ar amser. Mae amseroedd ymateb ein ambiwlansis ymhell y tu ol i ble y dylien nhw fod. Mae pob un o’r saith Bwrdd Iechyd lleol mewn rhyw fath o fesurau arbennig. Ac mae targedau perfformiad yn cael eu methu mor aml fel bod y targedau eu hun yn gwbl ddi-bwynt bellach. 

Canlyniad hyn ydy gweithlu sydd yn digalonni a chleifion sydd yn cael eu gadael i lawr gan system sy’n methu gweithredu i’w lawn botensial. 

Mae’r Llywodraeth yn sydyn iawn i restri ystadegau o’r niferoedd anferthol o bobl sydd yn ymweld ag adrannau brys neu yn ffonio 111 yn ddyddiol, fel tystiolaeth o lwyddiant y gwasanaeth o dan eu rheolaeth.  

Ond nid llwyddiant ydy hyn! Mae’n arwydd o fethiant. Mae pobl yn ffonio 111 ac yn ymweld ag adrannau brys oherwydd fod y Llywodraeth wedi methu a buddsoddi yn ein gwasanaethau cynradd a gofal.  

Ystyriwch un o fy etholwyr oedd angen penglin newydd.  

• Oherwydd y rhestr aros hirfaeth roedd o’n gorfod mynd yn ol i’r meddyg bob ychydig fisoedd i gael brechiadau lladd poen;  

• roedd o’n rhoi pwysau ymlaen ac mewn peryg o fynd yn ordew;  

• ac roedd ei iechyd meddwl yn dioddef yn ddifrifol ac yntai yn gorfod cael cymorth meddygol o’r herwydd.  

• Roedd y methiant i sicrhau un triniaeth penglin yn arwain at ddwsinau o gysylltiadau eraill a’r gwasanaeth iechyd.  

• Ac mae hyn yn digwydd ar raddfa anferthol ar draws y wlad.  

Y Canlyniad anochel wrth gwrs oedd bod fy etholwr wedi gorfod mynd yn breifat, fel cynifer o bobl. Gyfeillion, y gwir ydy, o dan Llafur mae ganddom ni wasanaeth iechyd ddwy haen – gwasanaeth prydlon ar gyfer y rhai sydd yn gallu ei fforddio, a gwasanaeth hir-ddisgwyliedig, yn arwain at ddirywiad mewn safon byw a iechyd personol i bawb arall. Dyma ydy gwaddol 25 mlynedd o lywodraeth Llafur yn rheoli ein gwasanaeth iechyd yng Nghymru. 

Wyddoch chi fod 20% o’r grwp Llafur yn y Senedd wedi bod yn weinidog iechyd! Ac mae pob un ohonyn nhw wedi dod i’ r swydd yn eu tro yn addo lleihau y rhestrau aros, ac yna yn gadael gyda’r rhestrau aros wedi cynyddu.  

Does dim gwadu maint yr heriau sydd yn wynebu’r gwasanaeth iechyd. Mae effaith y pandemig yn parhau i gael ei deimlo ar draws ein cymunedau. Mae ganddom ni boblogaeth sydd yn fwy sal ac yn hyn na gwledydd a rhanbarthau eraill y Deyrnas Gyfunol, ac mae’r tueddiadau demograffig yma yn dwyshau.  

Ond yn hytrach na chymryd cyfrifoldeb a chanfod datrysiadau mae’r Llywodraeth Lafur yn beio pawb a phopeth arall – o reolwyr y gwasanaeth iechyd, y gweithlu, y colegau brenhinol ac hyd yn oed y cleifion.  

Un o’r polisiau mwyaf niweidiol i’r sector iechyd a gofal dros y bymtheg mlynedd diwethaf oedd polisi creulon llymder y Ceidwadwyr. Mae’r argyfwng yn y sector gofal heddiw yn ganlyniad uniongyrchol i bymtheg mlynedd o doriadau sydd wedi llesteirio y gallu i ddarparu gofal – gyda thoriadau llym i wasanaethau anstatudol ond oedd oll yn cynorthwyo pobl oedd ar y trothwy o angen gofal – prosiectau ataliol hanfodol sydd bellach wedi mynd a’r gwasanaethau gofal a iechyd sydd yn talu’r pris heddiw. 

A beth ydy ymateb Llywodraeth Lafur newydd San Steffan?  Mwy o lymder, gyda Rachel Reeves yn son am doriadau o dros £20bn yn ychwanegol a Starmer yn dweud nad ydy o am adolygu’r fformiwla Barnett a sicrhau ariannu teg i Gymru. 

Yn hytrach na sefyll cornel Cymru a dadlau ein hachos, mae Llywodraeth y Barwnes Morgan wedi penderfynu peidio a herio eu meistri yn Llundain gan dderbyn y cyfan y llipa.    

We’ve also witnessed Labour Members in Senedd line up rank and file to reaffirm their UK leadership’s callous and counter-productive decision to withdraw the winter fuel allowance. And what has this got to do with our NHS?  

• The NHS spends at least £2.5 billion a year treating people with illnesses directly linked to living in cold, damp and dangerous conditions.  

• Over 25,000 people die each year in the UK as a result of living in cold temperatures, such as a living in poorly heated homes.  

• The most common aliments seen for poorly heated homes are circulatory diseases, respiratory problems and mental ill-health.  

• Other conditions which are influenced or exacerbated by cold housing include the common flu and cold, as well as arthritis and rheumatisms.  

• These would most likely lead to increased GP appointments, A&E visits, potential hospital inpatient stays and the need for (further) social service support.  

• The callous decision by the UK Labour Government to cut the winter fuel payments  will cost a lot of people dearly, and will add significant pressure on our NHS during the time of year when demand is at its peak.                

And in the ultimate sign that the Labour Party in Wales has abdicated responsibility, they have now effectively outsourced the task of managing waiting lists to the UK Government betraying the founding principles of devolution. 

There are no easy solutions to this crisis. Fixing the foundations of our NHS will take many years of hard work. 

But, conference, I would not be standing here today if I did not believe with every fibre of my being that a brighter and more sustainable future for the NHS is possible - and we must be the ones to deliver it for the people of Wales.  

It is up to us to step up to the mark – and offer the transformative vision that  the people of Wales desperately crave.    

This is about getting the basics right – rebuilding the foundations of our health and care systems. 

First and foremost, we’ll do this by ensuring that the preventative agenda is front and centre of everything we do as a government. 

Over the past decade, the Welsh Government has shifted ever-increasing resources away from primary care and programmes designed to promote healthier lifestyles to plug gaps at the beleaguered front-line.   

You don’t need a two and a half thousand pounds pair of glasses from a wealthy benefactor to see that this is a completely false economy that will consume ever more resources without alleviating pressures on frontline services.    

While the Labour Party is in the business of managing sickness, we’ll be in the business of keeping people healthier, for longer. 

A Plaid Cymru Government will create a new ringfenced departmental expenditure limit within the Welsh budget for preventative programmes, which we will commit to increasing every single year throughout the next Senedd term. Thus enhancing access to sports facilities, playing fields, healthy eating programmes and mental health and wellbeing initiatives.    

We’ll restore the bonds of primary healthcare by uplifting the number of GPs in Wales to the OECD average. This will entail recruiting an additional 500 GPs to this perennially underappreciated workforce, as well as redoubling efforts to retain the talent we have already, while ensuring that primary care gets an increased share of the Health funding. 

We also need to tackle the shocking reality that the NHS is literally crumbling. Over 60% of our hospitals pre-date the devolution era, and 11% are older than the NHS itself. And in recent years the maintenance backlog of the Estate has ballooned enormously – with costs associated with high risk issues alone reaching over a quarter of a billion pounds 

As was starkly illustrated by the recent testimony of the Chief Medical Officer for Wales at the UK Covid Inquiry, the aging and dilapidated nature of the Estate has alarming implications for staff and patient safety alike, and is inherently undermining long overdue efforts to digitalise health infrastructure and boost workforce productivity.     

We will put into action a new ten-year investment plan for the NHS Estate, by first tackling the desperate maintenance backlog.   

But rebuilding the foundations of the NHS isn’t just a case of replacing brick and mortar either. The fact that all seven of the major health boards in Wales are in a form of special measures – with some having been in this position for many years – underscores the urgent need for institutional reform, to end the normalisation of failing standards.  

This means initiating a comprehensive restructuring of governance architecture in the health system.    

We’ll empower the NHS Executive as a body with a clear mandate for day-to-day operations in the health service, and with the primary responsibility for overseeing escalation and intervention measures, de-politicising the process. We will no longer see troubled health boards de-escalated for political expediency because of an election that is on the horizon.  

We’ll review performance targets to ensure they are no longer simply ornamental, but have real meaning, and are properly aligned with resources.      

We’ll launch a recruitment drive to enhance specialist knowledge of healthcare governance within the civil service. 

And we’ll establish a professional regulatory body for NHS Wales, and a set of statutory and enforceable professional standards for all NHS managers. 

These measures may not be the most glamorous or eye-catching - but they are essential for getting the basics done, and done well.  

We will also ensure that the process of bringing care closer to the community is more than just a slogan.   

Because as we all know, hospitals shouldn’t be the be all and end all when it comes to the provision of healthcare – and yet when we consider the current situation whereby far too many people are getting stranded for days on end in hospital beds despite being well enough to be discharged, it is abundantly clear that the disconnect between the frontline and social care has yet to be satisfactorily addressed.        

So we’ll finish what we started through the Co-operation Agreement by creating a fully integrated National Care Service for Wales, where both major branches of the health and social care sector are working together in concert.   

As the first steps towards this, we must enhance the prestige of the social care workforce, which, despite being a vital pillar of the welfare state, has been underappreciated for far too long. This is why we will look to uplift the real living wage for paid social care workers by £1 per hour – taking us closer to the eventual goal of aligning their wage bands fully with NHS pay scales.  

In addition to the salaried social care workforce, we will be the most vocal and unstinting champions in Government of unpaid carers, who contribute billions to the Welsh economy each year despite often having to face formidable personal hardships. We’ll show this in deeds as well as words by revising the needs-based assessment criteria of unpaid carers to better reflect their housing needs, and provide greater flexibilities and opportunities around studying and personal development.       

Finally, we will embrace innovation to push the boundaries on how healthcare intersects with our lives - such as increasing the number of Rapid Diagnostic Clinics in Wales for cancer screening, opening a new dental school to train more dentists and trial Virtual Wards for elder care at home.        

Dyma gamau y gellir eu cymryd i wella ansawdd a darpariaeth a hynny heb yr angen am fuddsoddiad o biliynnau  o bunnoedd yn flynyddol. Mae gan Blaid Cymru weledigaeth drawsnewidiol fydd yn codi safonnau ac yn byw i fyny i’r weledigaeth o sicrhau gwasanaeth iechyd cenedlaethol am ddim i’n dinasyddion. Fedra i ddweud hyn wrthoch chi Heddiw, bydd Llywodraeth Plaid Cymru yn un cyffrous!