A CALL for an inquiry into the Welsh NHS was dismissed by the First Minister today.

The Welsh Conservatives said 71 per cent of people they surveyed supported a call for an investigation into the standards of care at hospitals.

But Carwyn Jones said: "To suggest that the NHS in Wales is somehow in every way in a more difficult state than in England is quite simply wrong.

"At the end of the day you have to find sufficient money to pay for a health service with an ever-ageing population and that will always be a challenge for any government."

In their Your Welsh NHS report, the Welsh Conservatives also suggested appointing elected health commissioners who would investigate allegations of malpractice.

The party’s leader, Andrew RT Davies, said they would “usher in a new era of openness and transparency – a culture change absolutely necessary to ensure that fundamental issues within the governance of the Welsh NHS are addressed.”

And Monmouth MP David Davies has said control of the health service should be taken away from the Welsh Government.

He said the “mess” the health service is in is demonstrated by hospital waiting lists and the lack of a cancer drugs fund in Wales.

Mr Davies said in Parliament last week: “Ideally, I would like to see power taken away from the Welsh Government because it has simply made such a mess of the NHS in Wales.

“Failing that, we should allow Welsh patients the right to be treated in England if they wish.

“We now have a situation where one in seven of the population in Wales is on a waiting list. I do not blame NHS staff. The fault lies squarely with the Welsh Government who have cut funding by eight per cent in real terms and politicised many of the health boards.”

A Labour spokesman said his comments needed to be treated with caution: “At a time when his party is promising devolution for every part of the UK, he seems to be the only Tory who is going the other way. We know that he has always been anti-devolution, and his remarks about public services have to be seen in that context.”

While the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ leader Kirsty Williams said it was the Labour-led Welsh Government’s fault that waiting times were increasing and they were not caused by devolution.

She said: “Nurses in Wales have more patients to care for than any other part of the UK. That is why the Welsh Liberal Democrats are campaigning to introduce safe staff nursing levels on our wards to ensure safe and compassionate care in all hospitals. NHS staff work tirelessly, but like patients, they are being failed by the Welsh Labour Government.”