Welsh Government sets aside £290m more for NHS spending

Wales’s NHS will receive an extra £290 million a year, the Welsh Government has announced in its spending plans.

The Labour administration in Cardiff Bay unveiled its draft budget to Assembly Members in the Senedd.

Finance Minister Jane Hutt said that spending on health would rise 4.1% to £7.1 billion in 2016/17.

However, the Labour AM announced there would be £54 million cut in local government.

Ms Hutt said “public service delivery” was at the heart of the plans – which would also see free school breakfasts, free prescriptions and concessionary travel fares protected as well.

However, opposition parties said the Welsh Government had not gone far enough.

The Welsh Conservatives said the increase in NHS spending was “too little too late”, while Plaid Cymru said it would have ring-fenced the health and social care budget.

Ms Hutt said: “It has been another challenging settlement which has been set against the backdrop of successive real terms cuts to our Budget over the last five years.

“It has meant us taking difficult decisions but we have done all we can within these financial constraints to protect the services that matter most to the people of Wales.”

A vote on the full budget takes place next March.

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