Eluned Morgan has vowed to tackle record waiting lists in Wales’ NHS
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00:00On her way to face her first First Minister's questions and make the long-awaited priority statement,
00:05Eluned Morgans also walked into that argument with health boards and, as expected, with opposition parties over those priorities.
00:12So what are they? No surprise that the NHS was at number one.
00:17We will cut NHS waiting times, including for mental health.
00:21We'll improve access to social care and we'll improve services for women's health.
00:26At number two?
00:27Green jobs and growth. We'll create jobs that not only tackle the climate crisis but help make families better off and restore nature.
00:36Third is this?
00:37We'll boost standards in our schools and colleges and provide more homes for social rent.
00:42And fourth?
00:43We'll transform our railway and deliver a better bus network. We'll fix our roads and empower local communities to make choices on 20mph.
00:54So a real sense of the what and no real surprises. But what about the how all that will be achieved?
01:01Well there was no road map to say how waiting times are going to come down.
01:04All we've heard is that she's been blaming the chief executives in the NHS.
01:08Six of the seven chief executives have been appointed while she's been health minister.
01:12There was no news on how absenteeism in school is going to be addressed and standards driven up.
01:17And then she talked about the state of Welsh roads and the 20mph speed limit.
01:21All policies enacted by herself and her colleagues in government.
01:25This was a remarkably thin statement of priorities.
01:28A statement of the obvious frankly. Health, education and the economy are clearly top of the pile for people.
01:34But you know matters like agriculture and rural affairs, child poverty, issues like that totally missing.
01:40It's a government that really is clearly out of ideas.
01:43With health at the top we asked voters in mould whether health boards or the FM were responsible for those record waiting lists.
01:50I would say probably more the politician. Because if it is the funding they're the ones who really divvy it around don't they?
01:57So maybe they could look into where they could put the funding in.
02:00But then it's obviously going to cut it from somewhere else so that she's going to be in the same boat.
02:04The book lies with the politicians and I think we need a good overall review of the senior managers.
02:13Eluned Morgan's also promised to hold her cabinet to account with monthly delivery meetings.
02:18If they don't deliver they'll have to answer to a new minister for delivery, Julie James.
02:23Possibly in front of each other.
02:25With the 2026 Senate election looming the First Minister herself will also need to prove to the electorate that she's delivering something worth voting for.