Health Minister promises an extra £15m a year to help clear NHS backlogs
A STRATEGY to “transform” planned care and cut waiting times over the next four years was set to be published by Health Minister Eluned Morgan today. The Welsh Government has confirmed it will be supported by an extra £60m – £15m a year over the next four years – for health boards.
The plan, being unveiled at noon, aims to help the Welsh NHS manage the huge backlog of appointments and treatments which have built up during the pandemic.
In February there were a record 691,885 patients on the waiting list, with 251,647 of them on it for nine months or more.
The Health Minister said the recovery plan aimed to ensure no-one would be waiting more than a year for treatment in most specialties by spring 2025. A series of stretching targets for health boards will also be set out in the plan.
Baroness Morgan said: “We need a determined effort to ensure people waiting for appointments and treatment are seen as quickly as possible and in order of clinical priority. We are committing £1 billion this Senedd term to help the NHS recover from the pandemic and to treat people as quickly as possible.
“Reducing waiting times will require new solutions, more equipment, new facilities and more staff to help diagnose people quickly as part of an effective and efficient planned care service. This plan sets out how we will transform planned care so the most urgent cases are prioritised.
“Unfortunately, waiting times and waiting lists have grown during the pandemic and will take a long time and a lot of hard work to do, but we are committed to working with our fantastic NHS to ensure no-one waits longer than a year for treatment in most specialities by spring 2025.
“Together with reducing waiting times, we also want to help people understand and manage their conditions and to feel supported while they are waiting for treatment. This is a big task – but it is our focus for the rest of this term.”
At the start of the pandemic most appointments and treatments were postponed to enable the NHS to focus on caring for the large number of people with Covid-19. Subsequent waves of coronavirus infections have also affected activity levels in the NHS. Infection control measures in the NHS, especially in hospitals, have greatly reduced the number of planned appointments and surgeries which can be performed.
As Wales moves beyond the emergency response to the pandemic, the Welsh Government said the way the NHS delivered some care would need to change permanently. This includes people only going into hospital when they need care, advice or services which cannot be delivered as close to their home as possible.
The plan sets the goal of 35% of all new appointments and 50% of followup appointments being delivered virtually in future to help free up clinicians’ time so they can see and treat more patients.
Another key element of the plan is delivering more diagnostic tests outside hospitals and closer to people’s homes in primary and community care settings. The government said plans for two community diagnostic centres would be developed this year, with more to follow by the end of this Senedd term.
Furthermore, a website will be created where patients can get the information and support to manage their own conditions, helping people to manage their own health and reducing the number who need to be readmitted to hospital for treatment.
Examples of how this funding has been used already to reduce waiting times include:
■ £19.937m for two new operating theatres at Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli, which will treat an additional 4,600 people a year;
■ £2.2m for Swansea Bay University
Health Board for the Singleton Day Surgery Unit, which will treat an additional 3,000 cataract patients a year;
■ £1.034m for trauma and orthopaedics at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board to treat an extra 3,650 people;
■ £827,000 for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s mobile endoscopy units to treat an additional 600 people;
£1.389m for two vanguard theatres at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board which will see between 3,900 and 4,500 people a year.
Professor Jon Barry, director for Wales at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “We are hearing from surgeons across Wales that Covid-19 is still impacting planned or elective surgery due to patients and staff testing positive and high levels of staff absence.
“In some areas, elective services are once again being brought to a standstill. These last-minute cancellations are agonising for patients who are waiting in pain and distress for their planned surgery.
“The Welsh Government must get to grips with the severity of the situation and establish elective centres or surgical hubs across Wales to get elective services back up and running.”