NEWPORT West MP Paul Flynn quizzed the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt over his criticism of the Welsh NHS on Thursday.

Mr Flynn told the House of Commons he had visited Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall Hospital on Sunday and saw a clinic open “for the convenience of patients to get maximum use of an expensive gamma camera”.

He added, of Mr Hunt’s recent and ongoing disputes with junior doctors: “The Secretary of State constantly denigrates the work of the Welsh health service, but will he pause to congratulate the Welsh and Scottish Governments, who avoided the misery of the strike and will also avoid the poisonous legacy of resentment that he will face from junior doctors?”

Mr Hunt replied: “The Welsh and Scottish Governments may have avoided the difficult decision that we are taking in the NHS in England, but the longer they go on avoiding the issue, the longer they will have higher mortality rates at weekends, which we are determined to do something about.”