It is obvious to anyone watching the Senedd and politics in Wales, that an election is already under way. And as always when the pressure rises, the old political parties reach for scare stories instead of honesty.In recent weeks I have heard Labour, Plaid Cymru and even the Conservatives claim that Reform UK would privatise the Welsh NHS.

Let me be absolutely clear. That is simply not true.Reform UK will keep NHS Wales FREE, and we will keep prescriptions free in Wales too. Claims to the contrary are being pushed to distract from the uncomfortable truth about the state of our health service after decades of Labour rule, repeatedly propped up by Plaid Cymru.

The reality is stark. Emergency department performance in Wales has fallen to its lowest level in years. Fewer than two thirds of patients are now being seen within four hours, against a target of 95 per cent. More than 10,000 people waited 12 hours or longer in a single month, even though the official target is that nobody should wait that long at all.Waiting lists now sit at well over 750,000 treatment pathways. That is close to one in four people in Wales.

Thousands of patients have been waiting more than two years for treatment, compared with only a tiny number in England. These are not abstract figures. They represent real people living in pain, anxiety and uncertainty.I have seen this crisis first hand. During my own time in hospital, I witnessed corridor care up close. Patients left waiting without dignity, without privacy, and without answers.

At my surgeries, constituents regularly tell me stories that should shame this government. One man described how his wife lay on a cold floor for a completely unacceptable amount of hours waiting for an ambulance, only to then spend the entire night outside hospital in the back of that ambulance because there was no space inside.

What frustrates people most is that promises keep being made and broken. Long waits were meant to be eliminated years ago, yet they persist and in some cases are getting worse. Throwing more money into a broken system without reform has clearly not worked.Reform is not about dismantling the NHS. It is about fixing it. We need serious reform from the ground up.

That means cutting layers of unnecessary management, bureaucracy, DEI. It means reducing waste, putting resources back where they belong on the frontline, listening to and supporting staff and some fresh ideas. It also means recruiting and retaining more doctors, nurses and paramedics, and properly supporting the amazing staff we already have so they are not burned out and driven away.

The old establishment parties shout “privatisation” because they are terrified of being challenged on their record and of being voted into irrelevance at this election.Wales deserves an NHS that works when people need it most. That is what I will keep fighting for in the Senedd and that’s what Reform will deliver after May’s Senedd elections.