Fears for services after ministers refuse to bail outWelsh health boards
WELSH Health Secretary Vaughan Gething has refused to guarantee that services will not suffer because of multimillion-pound overspends within four of Wales’ health boards.
Mr Gething was put on the spot yesterday after the Welsh Government insisted it would not bail out the four health boards, which are expected to overspend by £151m.
Mr Gething was asked on BBC Wales’ Good Morning Wales if he could guarantee that the Welsh Government’s policy will not force health boards to cut services and allow waiting times to grow as they try to save money.
He said: “I don’t think that any service is going to be cut simply because of finance, but part of our challenge is we need to change the way we deliver services anyway. That isn’t about necessarily money making all of our decisions for us. It really is about how we provide a better service.”
The interviewer pressed him again for a guarantee, but Mr Gething would only say he was ‘pretty certain’ services would not be cut.
He said: “I am pretty certain that I do not think that we will cut services simply because of money. We will change services but that’s because we should change some of our services because they currently don’t deliver the right value and the best quality. And we could, and should, deliver a better sort of health service...
“For example, changing outpatients will make a big difference to the sort of efficiency. That’s a change not a cut driven by money.”
Mr Gething said there was “no prospect” of operations being cancelled for financial reasons.
The Welsh Government warns that the overspends are “unacceptable” and states that organisations that spend more than allocated “have not – and will not – be bailed out”.
Here are the forecast deficits for 2016-17:
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU): £39m Betsi Cadwaladr: £30m Cardiff and Vale: £31m Hywel Dda: £50m Angela Burns, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Secretary, warned that patients and staff could end up “paying the price” of a “culture of waste”.
She said: “These soaring deficits show a health service teetering on the brink of a financial abyss. Failures by the Welsh Labour Government to initiate long-term planning measures for health boards and to break the culture of waste and inefficiency have all played their part in the mess our NHS now finds itself in.
“There is a real risk that health boards will soon be forced to cut vital services in order to make savings, and it’s patients and staff who will be left paying the price.”
A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: “Four health boards in Wales are forecasting financial deficits for the 2016–17 financial year.
“The financial outlook and failure to produce sustainable, approvable financial plans forms part of the decision-making to place these organisations into targeted intervention. The position in these four health boards is unacceptable, and we have made it clear that we expect them to take action to significantly improve their financial position. We will not approve plans that do not deliver such improvements.
“It is the responsibility of individual NHS Wales organisations to manage their financial resources. Individual organisations who exceed their allocated resources, have not – and will not – be bailed out. We are working alongside all organisations to improve their respective positions.
“It is important to note that the overall health budget will be balanced for the 2016-17 financial year.”
According to the Welsh Government, AMBU was placed in “targeted intervention” because it was unable to deliver a previously approved plan, and has continuing challenges in areas including unscheduled care and cancer.
ABMU is forecast to have a deficit of £53m next year
An ABMU spokeswoman said: “Despite receiving a material increase in funding over the last two years, our biggest challenges have come from delivering savings programmes and addressing the increased demand on our services – for example, in cancer treatments. In addition, we have experienced increased costs in areas such as our nursing and medical workforce costs due to recruitment issues. Difficulties recruiting permanent staff means there is an over-reliance on agency and locum staff instead, which is expensive.
“ABMU health board is one of the largest NHS organisations in the UK with an overall annual budget of £1.2bn meaning an average running cost of £3m per day.”
A Ukip spokesman argued the overseas development budget should be cut, saying: “Ukip supports increased funding for the NHS in Wales, which can be secured by cutting the UK’s foreign aid budget by £8bn, for example. Wales would be the recipient of £400m as a result of a reduced foreign aid budget on a per capita basis.”
A spokeswoman for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “The Health Board is forecasting a £30.9m deficit. We are currently developing a budget for the financial year 2017-18 taking into account the previous year’s deficit, allocations of additional funding, cost pressures and growth in demand for the services we provide.”