Gething: Welsh government communications on NHS must improve

Wales' deputy health minister Vaughan Gething says the Welsh government needs to be more effective in communicating with the public about the NHS.

His comments, on Sunday Politics Wales, follow claims by the Tories problems in health services helped them make Welsh gains in the general election.

He said the challenge was to get people to look at their own NHS experiences.

Problems in the NHS were identified as a major factor in the election campaign in the Vale of Clwyd, in particular.

Mr Gething said: "Our challenge is to persuade the public to look at what the health service does, to think about their own experience, because nine out of 10 people have a very good experience of the NHS.

"Our job is how we are more effective in communicating what the health service does day in day out, and the very real quality treatment, quite rightly, they receive."

The Conservative MP James Davies, a GP, won the Vale of Clwyd seat from Labour's Chris Ruane, who had been the MP for 18 years, by just 237 votes.

In relation to the importance of the NHS, Mr Davies said: "It was probably the top issue that people wanted to talk about on the doorsteps.

"There were a number of other factors that, overall, I was able to win but I think certainly they lost a lot of support over what is going in north Wales on the NHS."

Last week, the former Welsh government minister Alun Davies said Labour had lost the argument about the state of health services.

Mr Gething gave a strong defence of the NHS in Wales, but said there was "real doubt in people's minds and fears" which had been ruthlessly exploited by the Conservatives with criticism that was not based on fact.

He said there would now be a period of reflection by Welsh Labour before it established why it suffered losses in a number of seats and failed to challenge in other areas.

He acknowledged the NHS was one of a number of factors, including the impact of UKIP, but said there was no complacency by the Welsh government which was focused on outcomes in health service.