I have great concerns over statistics released earlier this week that show Government targets for A&E departments are still not being met.

Official figures for December show that 7,974 patients spent more than the Government’s targeted four hour waiting time in A&E departments. The Welsh Government also has a target for 99% of patients waiting no more than eight hours – this target was also missed.

The Welsh Labour Government needs to get its act together with regards to our Accident and Emergency departments. The December statistics have confirmed our worst fears that not a single A&E department hit their desired target for 2011. The end of year assessment is that Welsh Labour is failing our NHS and are doing very little about it. One has to question what is the point of these Government set targets if they are consistently not achieved. I can only imagine how demoralising it must be for NHS staff who work incredibly hard to provide the people of Wales with the very best health service possible, but are not given the tools to do it.

From December 2011, the Welsh Government changed the guidance on how A&E departments would record their waiting times. The Statistics Department have indicated that that these changes should lead to a small increase in the percentage waiting less than four and eight hours in A&E departments. Cardiff and Vale University and Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health boards did not implement the change to the guidance, therefore the actual all Wales figures is likely to be slightly worse than the 89% and 97% figures given.

It is absolutely essential that all Local Health Boards use the same reporting techniques if we are to get a true picture of the exact state of our NHS services. I understand that December was the first month of the changes, but LHBs must ensure that they stick to the exact guidance given, otherwise these vital statistics will be made pointless.

The Medical Director of NHS Wales, Dr. Chris Jones, admitted in the National Assembly’s Health Committee yesterday that one of the reasons for low recruitment levels to the Welsh NHS was down to poor services.

Responding to questions on low junior doctor recruitment levels prompted by myself, the NHS Medical Director said that “some of our services are intrinsically unattractive”

A number of small hospital and Minor Injury Units across Wales have had to close recently due to staff shortages and the BMA recently stated that there are around 400 vacant doctor posts in Wales as a whole.

From the numerous temporary hospital closures we’ve seen across Wales recently, it is evident that the NHS in Wales has a difficulty in recruiting junior doctors and senior clinicians. This is not good enough for our NHS. It is affecting service delivery and patient safety.

As the Health Minister was stating that immigration was a major problem for recruitment in Wales, the Medical Director, who was sat to her right, very honestly said that services in Wales were intrinsically unattractive for potential junior doctors.

I have been calling on the Health Minister and the First Minister for a long time for them to speed up the launch of their recruitment campaign. I am glad that she stated that a recruitment campaign will be launched next Wednesday. However, given the Health Minister’s lack of information and vagueness on the details of the campaign when answering questions to the Health Committee, I am very concerned that this recruitment campaign is going to be a ‘paper launch’ with little benefit for the people and patients of Wales.

New Year’s resolutions can be difficult to keep – I know from experience and I suspect quite a high percentage of people fall by the wayside early on in their determination to stop smoking, drink less, watch what they eat or get off the sofa and go for a stroll.

However we can all, at any time during the year, change our habits for a healthier lifestyle.

According to numerous and worrying statistics, it seems that Wales is in desperate need of a New Year’s resolution that won’t be broken.

The financial burden of obesity and alcohol to our NHS is £140m a year and, astoundingly, the cost of smoking to the NHS is around £360m. At a time when the budgets are seriously constrained, this is a cost that we could most certainly do without.

However, while we must keep an eye on budgets, what is most pressing is the effect obesity, smoking and alcohol is having on the quality and length of our lives.

The statistics are stark:

One in five adults in Wales is classed as obese and 57% as overweight or obese. Wales also has some of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the world – 16% of two to 16-year-olds are classed as obese;

Smoking is the greatest preventable cause of illness, disability and premature death in Wales and it accounts for more than 5,600 deaths a year;

Alcohol is a major preventable cause of death and illness in Wales but around 1,000 deaths are attributable to excessive alcohol consumption per year in Wales.

When considering statistics like this, what’s striking is the strong correlation between high chronic disease rates and low socioeconomic status.

Lifestyles of people in different parts of Wales – often a couple of miles apart – can lead to as much as a 19-year gap in life expectancy.

Cwm Taf Health Board, which covers many deprived communities, has a higher death rate from respiratory disease than the average. In the same health board, the death rate due to alcoholic liver disease is increasing.

It is evident this is more than a health issue – this is a serious social justice issue.

To be fair to the Welsh NHS, it has been talking about the old adage that “prevention is better than cure” for a long time. However I don’t think this mantra is always at the forefront of planning and delivery.

In 2002, when Jane Hutt was Health Minister, it was like a New Year resolution when she announced resources would be concentrated on preventing people from having to use the NHS in the first place.

This was all very admirable until other parts of the NHS were suffering, causing negative headlines in the media. Cue a broken resolution and the emphasis shifted back to treating people in hospitals, rather than sticking to the resolution and preventing people from going into hospital in the first place.

In the most deprived areas of Wales, I want the Health Minister to trial a radical programme of healthcare, successfully developed in New Jersey, in the US. It is based around a network of doctors, nurses and social workers who will work with the neediest patients in their area to reduce regular (costly) hospital visits and improve those patients’ access to more appropriate, and less costly, treatment. Not only could this improve the standard of life for the patients involved, it could also ease the pressure on our NHS services.

If the Welsh Government is serious about preventing rather than curing, any strategy must be for the long term.

As we all know with New Year resolutions, you don’t see the benefits of losing weight in just a few weeks.

“Prevention is better than a cure” should be a long-term commitment that will hopefully reap many rewards.