A NEW international report on the NHS in Wales is set to reignite the rancorous political debate about whether or not the service here is worse than that in England.

With an Assembly election less than three months away, the influential Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published the findings of a two-year study into the quality of healthcare in Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.

It concludes that “no consistent picture emerges of one of the United Kingdom’s four health systems performing better than another” and highlights “clear and consistent commitment to quality of care in all of the health systems."

A key finding for the NHS in Wales is that quality is at the heart of the system, with the importance of high quality and patient-centred care given "a high level priority."

It stresses too that in healthcare similar issues face all four UK countries, from an ageing population to the growth of chronic conditions.

And it makes UK-wide recommendations, including improving performance against other member countries of the OECD. Among the findings for Wales are:

• Quality is at the heart of the Welsh health system. The importance of high-quality and patient-centred care is given a high-level priority;

• Continuously improving the quality of care is a deeply-established and widely-shared commitment in the Welsh health system;

• A clear effort has been made in Wales to use patient concerns and complaints to help improve quality of care;

• Wales is ahead on securely linking individuals’ health and social care data and is actively using some quality indicators;

• The 1,000 Lives campaign has been a successful way of fostering a culture of quality improvement.

The report also acknowledges the unique challenges faced by Wales due to its larger proportion of older people and children, and issues in providing healthcare to isolated areas. Welcoming the report, health minister Mark Drakeford said it "finally puts to rest the claims that a particular heath service in one part of the UK is better than the others."

His comment refers to repeated claims by Prime Minister David Cameron and his health secretary Jeremy Hunt that the NHS in England performs better than that in Wales, and that patients in Wales are losing out.

Exchanges on the issue in recent years have become increasingly bitter, rousing the anger of Professor Drakeford and First Minister Carwyn Jones at what they see as the deliberate denigration of the NHS in Wales by the Conservative Government in Westminster.

“This report is the line between fact and fiction. Any claims of one nation having a second-rate NHS compared to others simply do not reflect the facts," said Professor Drakeford.

"The time has come for a real, mature debate about the future of our health services.

* The OECD seeks to promote policies to improve economic and social well-being around the world, and it provides a forum for governments to work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems.