BMA says Health Minister Gibbons has better understanding of NHS

According to Dr Tony Calland, the British Medical Association's (BMA) chairman in Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government's understanding of the NHS is better under Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons.

But Dr Calland is also probably going to say that the service is still in intensive care.

It is expected he will praise the assembly government for progress in cutting waiting lists and also describe Labour's minority government status as a chance to put the NHS "back on track".

But in order to do this, he will say that government ministers will need work with doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff so that they all are pulling in the same direction.

In a speech, to be delivered in Manchester to BMA representatives, the doctor is also expected to say that the assembly government has shown is has listened to the medical body with its 10-year NHS strategy, called Designed for Life, by reconfiguring hospitals to make them more efficient and by separating elective and emergency care.

Dr Calland will undoubtedly also criticise the Welsh Assembly Government for what he considers the unprofessional and distinctly unhelpful manner in which it interfered with the implementation of the Welsh consultants' contract.

Members of the BMA have agreed that a vote of no confidence in the government's handling of a long-running dispute concerning overtime pay for NHS consultants will be recorded.

Dr Calland is also bound to tell the meeting that the row has damaged the trust which was being built up between the two sides and problems have been created where problems previously did not exist.