Wales' health minister has asked people to try and live a more healthier life to help with the ongoing NHS crisis.
The Welsh NHS is currently in a state of total crisis with huge waiting lists, ambulances sitting outside of A&E for hours and incredibly low morale among staff. Health Minister Eluned Morgan is under immense pressure to get on top of the crisis and reduce the waiting lists going forward.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, she apologised for the situation the health service is in. "I'm really sorry that we haven't been able to do better despite huge efforts that have been made across Wales," she said, adding: "We have put huge amounts of preparation in place... obviously it's not enough. We have very high levels of ill health in Wales and people can help themselves, do more exercise, stop smoking, eat healthier.
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"If we're not going to see changes in behaviour from the public as well then we will have to have a situation where we're perhaps offering fewer services. What I've asked the NHS to do next year is to focus on five or six priority areas and if they can do anything beyond that, that will be great.
"We need to understand that there is only so much money in the system and we'll have priority areas that we're going to have to focus on. And that will mean very, very difficult decisions for those health boards."
Horror stories of people's experiences in the Welsh NHS have been emerging in recent months. One of the most recent was the when a woman begged for an ambulance for two hours while her husband was dying at their home in front of her. You can read more about this here.
Ms Morgan also said the government had been preparing for winter since April last year, spends more on social care than anywhere else in the UK and was performing "much better than England" in terms of emergency services. She also said that the NHS Wales 111 services that has been rolled out across the country, while the establishment of urgent primary care centres had diverted about 5,000 people away from A&E.
Speaking on Monday First Minister Mark Drakeford said Welsh NHS experienced it's busiest day ever on December 27 as people were hospitalised for flu, Covid and Strep A. He said that 5% of the entire NHS bed capacity was used on just that day alone.
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