500 new beds are needed in Welsh hospitals, Plaid Cymru claim

Plaid Cymru have accused Welsh Labour mismanaging NHS hospitals and leaving the system at "crisis point".

The party unveiled a 12 point "emergency" action plan on Monday, saying it was needed to tackle the urgent problems of long waiting lists and times.

The party pointed to figures showing 10 per cent of the population of Wales is now on a hospital waiting list.

And they said that in the three years up to 2002/03 the number of hospital beds fell by three per cent and the number of in-patients receiving treatment fell by four per cent.  

Plaid Cymru say 500 fully staffed additional beds need to be provided in Welsh NHS hospitals.

Proposals under the 12 point action plan include more treatments carried out in GPs surgeries, new NHS walk-in centres and the full use of the potential of community hospitals to take pressure off hospital A&E departments.

It also suggested payments to care homes by local authorities should be increased by £50 per bed per week, and more use should be made of a range of health professionals to take the pressure off doctors.

And to combat the MRSA "superbug", Plaid Cymru called for the reversal of the privatisation of hospital cleaning services.

Health spokesman Hywel Williams said: "Plaid Cymru believes patients in Wales deserve more respect and our hard-working doctors and nurses deserve better working conditions.

"Over the last five years New Labour has let our patients down and they've let our doctors and nurses down.

"Urgent action is essential and we believe our 12 point action plan will drive down waiting lists and waiting times."