Last week new measures were announced by the Assembly government to restructure the Welsh Health Service and shift funding away from bureaucracy and towards front-line services. These steps being taken since Plaid went into government in the National Assembly will end the internal market within the Welsh NHS and ensure an improved service for patients.

We have seen the pressure that the NHS has come under over the past decades and much of that is down to the divisive internal market in the NHS. Now, instead of funding bureaucracy and red tape, Plaid’s government has re-evaluated how the NHS in Wales should be run.

One of the first things Plaid did in government was to stop the hospital closure and downgrade programme of the previous Administration. As a result hospitals have been saved throughout Wales since the One Wales government came to power just over a year ago including Withybush hospital here in Pembrokeshire. It’s good now to see that the NHS as a whole is now being overhauled as Plaid promised to do in our election manifesto. I applaud the efforts of the One Wales Health minister Edwina Hart, who has bravely followed a different path to that taken by the London Labour government. I’m sure these changes will lead to significant improvements for patients.