Programme for Government 2026-2030

The Welsh Government's Programme for Government 2026-2030 sets out Plaid Cymru's ambition for Wales. This includes a goal to build a health and care service fit for the future, through:

• Cutting waiting lists

• Improving outcomes through person-centred care

• Improving workforce and system infrastructure sustainability

• Strengthening social care

• Safeguarding children and adults

The programme also commits to the development of a National Clinical Services Strategy, a National Cancer Strategy, a Dementia Strategy and a strengthened NHS Wales Women's Health Plan.

A Healthier Wales

A Heathier Wales is Wales's long-term health strategy, and was published in 2018. An updated plan was published in 2024.

• Policy Direction
  
  • Shift from hospital treatment to focus on prevention, early diagnosis, and self-management.
  • Value-based & Prudent Healthcare: outcomes and system value over volume.

Other Key Health Policies

• Healthcare in Wales aims to align with principle of “Prudent Healthcare”. What this means for Industry Partners:
  
  
  • NHS Wales aims to reduce unnecessary and low-value prescribing and redirect resources to treatments that demonstrably improve outcomes.
  • Medicines must support the “Do only what is needed” principle. There is particular scrutiny on antibiotic prescribing and repeat prescriptions. 
  • Outcomes that matter to patients carry more weight than activity alone.
  • Medicines that enable care closer to home, reduce outpatient burden, or support primary care are a priority.
  • Patients are framed as equal partners, with shared decisions replacing clinician-only choices.
    
    
• The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act is a law that requires public bodies in Wales to consider the long-term impact of their decisions, aiming to improve social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being.
  
  • Pharmaceutical companies working in Wales must demonstrate that their medicines deliver long-term, preventative, and equitable value, helping NHS bodies meet their legal duties under the act, rather than driving short-term volume or activity. 

Wales Innovates

• Wales Innovates is Wales’s innovation strategy.
  
  
• Health and Wellbeing is one of the strategy's core missions, with the aim of creating a coherent innovation ecosystem in which health and social care collaborate with industry, academia and the third sector to deliver greater value and impact for citizens. Three elements are particularly relevant to pharmaceutical industry and life sciences partners.
  
  
  • Strong expectation of partnership: NHS Wales, industry, academia and third-sector organisations working together to address system priorities.
  • Demand-led innovation: a focus on innovations that improve prevention, diagnosis, community-based care, service transformation and system productivity.
  • Value expectation: innovations should demonstrate improved patient outcomes, better experience and more efficient use of resources.

NHS Wales Planning Framework

• Welsh Government publish yearly guidance that sets out the strategic priorities that must be delivered by all NHS health boards in the next three years. The most recent guidance was published in 2026, and set out six broad areas of focus, each associated with key delivery expectations:
  

  • Timely Access to Care.

  • Population Health and Prevention.

  • Community By Design.

  • Mental Health Access.

  • Women’s Health.

  • Quality and Safety