Wales NHS: Labour accuses Tories of 'bully boy attacks'
Wales NHS: Miliband 'terrified' of 'failure', says Cameron
(about 1 hour later)
The Conservatives have been condemned for "bully boy attacks" on Welsh Labour's running of the NHS in Wales.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said Ed Miliband is "totally terrified" of Labour's Welsh NHS "failure".
Health Minister Mark Drakeford said criticism fuelled by the national press was "nakedly political" and "severely damaging" to staff morale.
The Labour leader accused Mr Cameron of "smearing the NHS in Wales".
UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has claimed patients in Wales were getting a "second-class" service.
The exchange, at Prime Minister's Questions, follows UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt's claim that patients in Wales get a "second-class" service.
But Mr Drakeford told The Guardian newspaper Labour would "set the record straight point by point".
Welsh Health Minister Mark Drakeford has condemned the Conservatives for "bully boy attacks" on Welsh Labour's running of the NHS in Wales.
"Nobody should go away with the idea we are some kind of free hit," said Mr Drakeford.
In the Commons, the prime minister told Mr Miliband: "What we've seen is he is totally terrified of Labour's failures in Wales on the NHS."
A description of patients travelling from Wales to England for treatment as "refugees" by Monmouth Conservative MP David Davies was also condemned by the minister.
Mr Cameron said the English NHS was treating 1.3m more outpatients across six million appointments, seen to by thousands of additional doctors and nurses.
He said: "The notion that Welsh patients are not welcome in English hospitals is offensive."
Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb and his Labour shadow Owen Smith clashed in the House of Commons over the running of the NHS in Wales.
Mr Smith accused the prime minister and UK health secretary of "constitutional vandalism" in waging a "war on Wales" by criticising the Welsh government's record on the health service.
Mr Crabb told him the NHS was "the number one issue for the people of Wales" and it was wrong for Labour to try to shut down debate on it.
He said Mr Drakeford "needs to get a grip and get on top of this issue".
'Tissue of lies'
The latest political row over the Welsh NHS broke out on Monday following claims by the Daily Mail the NHS in Wales was in "meltdown".
It developed into a war of words between the Welsh and UK health ministers in a terse exchange of letters.
Mr Drakeford accused the Conservatives on Tuesday of telling a "tissue of lies" about the state of the Welsh NHS.
He also accused Mr Hunt of intending to "quote selectively" from a planned review of NHS services across the UK by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The survey has been commissioned to compare the health services of the four UK nations and is scheduled for release in February 2015.
Mr Drakeford wrote to Mr Hunt saying the Welsh government might consider commissioning its own report from the OECD instead, unless Mr Hunt ended his "attempts to subvert the process".
But Mr Hunt said the findings of the OECD should not be withheld from the public.
"I believe we owe it to taxpayers who fund the NHS to show we are willing to learn from other parts of the UK as to where our performance can be improved," he wrote in reply to Mr Drakeford.
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams also criticised Mr Hunt for suggesting English hospitals were not paid for treating Welsh patients.
In a letter, she said: "In terms of payment, you will be well aware that all treatment received by Powys patients in Hereford is then paid for Powys Teaching Local Health Board.
"There should be no inference whatsoever that any of my constituents are receiving or expecting to receive treatment that is not then paid for."
Welsh patients actually helped sustain services at the County Hospital in Hereford, she added.
'Interference'
Pontypridd AM Labour Mick Antoniw accused the Conservatives of waging a "dirty tricks campaign" in conjunction with the "right-wing" Daily Mail.
He defended Welsh Labour's threat to order its own report from the OECD on the grounds of "political interference" in the process by Mr Hunt.
But Monmouth Conservative MP David Davies claimed Labour were trying to block publication of a report which he said would reflect badly on the party.
He told BBC Wales on Wednesday the Tories would like to see the OECD report come out "as quickly as possible and preferably ... before the election so we can examine Labour's claim to be the party of the NHS".
On Wednesday, the Daily Mail said patients in Wales were dying waiting for treatment, and claimed nearly 1,400 patients in Wales waited at least a year for an operation, compared to under 600 in England.
In response, the Welsh government said the number of patients waiting more than a year for treatment had fallen by 90% since 2000.
However, the paper's consultant editor Andrew Pierce said the state of the NHS in Wales was "shocking" and it was doing its job by challenging the Welsh government on the issue.
Meanwhile a nurses' leader has said that political infighting over the NHS in Wales was putting patients and staff at risk.
Tina Donnelly, director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales, said that to have politicians "scaremonger" about the standard of service within the NHS in Wales was "not wanted".
The Welsh NHS Confederation asked for a "sense of perspective", saying a "significant majority" of patients received good care.
It said the health service needed support, including "constructive criticism" from politicians, the media and others.
