Accident of being Pembrokeshire born

As junior doctors in England prepare to go on strike next week Welsh Health Minister Mark Drakeford has released a video enticing them to come and work in Wales. You can see it on Youtube.

Now I have known Mark Drakeford for a long time and admire him a good deal, both as an academic – he was Professor of Social Policy at Cardiff University – and as a politician. He was Rhodri Morgan’s political adviser for the whole time he was First Minister and in many ways provided him with the thinking that has sustained Labour in power in Cardiff Bay for the past 16 years. For instance, he came up with what became known as the ‘clear red water’ that separated Labour in Wales from Tony Blair’s right-leaning policies in England.

Mark Drakeford - glaring contradiction in Pembrokeshire

As Health Minister Mark Drakeford has sought to continue this approach. But anyone from Pembrokeshire watching his video will immediately spot one glaring contradiction. Much of it is uncontroversial, from a Welsh point of view. He speaks of the great advantages to be had for doctors choosing to work in our country, of the great sport and music on offer, and that wherever you live you are within an hour’s reach of the mountains or the sea.

He goes on to address directly the fractious dispute that English junior doctors are involved in, over their pay and hours of work, that has caused 98 per cent of them to vote for strike action. “All I want to say to about that is that the approach we take in Wales is always one of discussion, negotiations and agreement,” he says.

“We have a partnership approach with all those people who work within the NHS in Wales. When there are difficult issues that have to be addressed we do it by getting around the table together, by putting the issue in the middle of the table and making sure we solve that issue in a way that is common to us all. That is the way we do things in Wales. That’s the way we are going to approach our part of the contract negotiations. We won’t be changing anything in Wales until we know we have a proper way ahead.”

So far, so good, you might say, even if it is a bit general and unspecific. But listen to what he says next. “Coming to Wales would mean being in a country where the initials NHS still really matter. We have an national service here in Wales, a planned service, an integrated service, a service where what drives what you get is the level of your clinical need, not the accident of where you were born, not the accident of who you know, not the accident of how well placed you are to advance your own individual case or cause.”

What anyone from Pembrokeshire would say to Mark Drakeford is that the accident of being born here matters a great deal. It means that if a woman runs into difficulty during childbirth she will have to be rushed in an ambulance upwards of 40 miles on poor roads to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen. This is now the nearest location where consultant-led maternity services are available since Mark Drakeford’s downgrading of Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest last year.