Senedd members quizzed Wales’ health secretary about long NHS waits amid concerns about health boards getting the “green light” to commission private sector services.
Jeremy Miles, who was appointed health secretary in September, told the Senedd an extra £22m, on top of £28m announced last month, will go to tackling the longest NHS waits.
In a statement on November 19, Mr Miles said the £50m will be made available to health boards immediately and “where necessary” will be spent on private hospital capacity.
Mabon ap Gwynfor, his Plaid Cymru opposite number, raised concerns about privatisation.
He said: “We have yet another example of the government having to absorb added costs from their mismanagement of existing NHS capacity, something we’ve seen before with respect to the spiralling bills associated with agency staffing.
‘Alarming’
“From a broader perspective, this also speaks to the false economy on which the government’s funding of the health service has been based for some time, which is to throw money at the front line without dealing with the issues upstream.”
Mr ap Gwynfor pointed to a backdrop of two-year waiting time targets being dropped by the Welsh Government, with one in five people now on a waiting list.
He said: “Back in September, the solution … was to offer treatments in England. By October, the solution was to pay £28m to tackle waiting lists. Now we’re in November, the solution is to increase that £28m to £50m. I wonder what the next statement will be next month.”
Mr ap Gwynfor said the £50m will not be used to address a recruitment and retention crisis, nor boost student placements on medical training courses following an “alarming” slump.
The Dwyfor Meirionnydd Senedd member, who published a report on NHS governance earlier the same day, asked how much will go to private providers.
‘Staggering’
But Sam Rowlands, the Tories’ shadow health secretary, welcomed ministers “encouraging” health boards to commission services from the private sector.
He said: “I’m not sure if some of your colleagues will approve of that but it’s something we’ve long called for: cross-sector collaboration to tackle waiting lists here in Wales.”
The North Wales representative raised concerns about a “staggering” 619,200 patients awaiting treatment, with 24,000 people waiting two years compared with 124 in England.
Warning of systemic failure, Mr Rowlands said: “The 95% target for patients spending less than four hours in A&E in Wales has never been met. The 95% target of patients waiting fewer than 26 weeks in Wales hasn’t been met in more than 10 years.
“The 75% target for cancer patients to start treatment within 62 days of cancer being suspected has never been met in Wales.”
‘Subsumed’
Mr Miles cautioned against cross-border comparisons, saying waiting time measures in England are “very much narrower” than in Wales.
He said the £50m will see 16,000 more people treated, an extra 14,000 tests carried out and up to 20,000 more outpatient appointments by March 2025.
Mr Miles told the Senedd that £3m will go towards reducing the longest waits for autism and ADHD assessments amid exponential growth in demand.
He said: “In six months alone, waiting lists for neurodevelopmental assessments have increased by more than 2,000. Assessments can be complex and reductions to the waiting lists have been quickly subsumed by new referrals.”
The health secretary recognised that short-term measures will be insufficient on their own, stressing: “I have been clear with the NHS: we need to transform the way we deliver services while we focus on clearing the backlog. Our funding is intended to support this.”