The NHS in Wales is short of key staff, it is claimed

Roy Lilley, an independent health analyst, has described the Welsh health service as "a basket case".

He told BBC Wales that the Welsh NHS has some of the longest waiting lists in the UK and shortages of GPs, consultants and nurses.

Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt said she was committed to reducing waiting lists and that improvements were being made.

Mr Lilley, a former NHS trust chairman and now a health policy analyst, has spoken about the different approach to policy in Wales following the launch of a new five-year plan for England.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that there is something very wrong Roy Lilley

On Thursday, UK Health Secretary John Reid said the waiting time in England from GP referral to operation would be, at most, 18 weeks by 2008.

Mr Lilley said the NHS in Wales was "a long way behind the game" with some of the longest waiting lists in the UK and shortages of key staff.

He added there was a good case for taking responsibility away from the Welsh Assembly Government and giving it to a strategic authority in England.

Mr Lilley told BBC Radio Wales on Friday: "Wales has the longest waiting lists in Britain and a critical shortage of staff.

"You've had three strategic reviews to try to sort this out.

'Better fist'

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that there is something very wrong.

"I think there's a good case for taking the NHS away from the assembly. "At the moment, the NHS in Wales doesn't have a good reputation."

Roy Lilley says the NHS should be taken from assembly control

He added: "England has made a much better fist of it. "They've done very well on waiting times and done work on developing primary care.

"I think comparisons are fair and in all truth, Wales comes out very poorly."

Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt told BBC Radio Wales that the problem of staff shortages has been overstated.

Ms Hutt added: "We've got a less than 2% vacancy rate.

"We have 12,800 more staff on board. Since January we have appointed 70 extra consultants.

"(On waiting lists) we've got a good record on cardiac, we've brought it down from way over 12 months when I was first health minister to now, where there are only about 30 people waiting over eight months.

'Reduce waiting times'

"We are saying to people if they are waiting an unacceptably long time over these target points, then they will be offered treatment at another hospital."

When asked whether she would pledge that waiting list targets in Wales would match those announced for England, Ms Hutt said that she was committed to reducing waits for treatment.

"My ambition is to reduce waiting times - that's why �10m is going into a new orthopaedic unit at Llandough (hospital)," she said.

"One thing we are doing in Wales which is different from England is that people should have access to someone in the primary care team within 24 hours.

"In England, they are saying 48 hours to see their GP - that is progress.

"One in three people in Wales has a chronic condition.

"We've got an older population and we've got to work on public health.

"I'm looking at how we can reduce waiting lists step by step."

Plaid Cymru's health spokesman, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, said: "In terms of people waiting, the situation is worse now than before devolution in 1999.

"That's a condemnation of the assembly government and Jane Hutt."

On Thursday First Minister Rhodri Morgan said Wales did not have the same need for choice in the NHS as England, because of its geography and social values.