English hospital bans Welsh in funding row

AN ENGLISH hospital is refusing to offer care to new patients from Wales except for emergency or maternity cases.

The decision will affect thousands of people who live in North Wales close to the border with England.

It means GPs will not be able to refer them for treatment over the border. Bosses at the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust said the decision comes into effect immediately.

The move follows a dispute over the Chester hospital’s funding arrangements for Welsh patients.

Trust boss Susan Gilby said it was a ‘difficult decision taken with great reluctance’.

She told the BBC: ‘Unfortunately, the trust is currently unable to accept any new elective work relating to patients living in Wales.

‘We will of course honour any existing appointments so there will be no disruption for patients already waiting.’

She said contract negotiations were continuing and the trust was working closely with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in North Wales to sort out the issue.

Evan Moore, executive medical director at Betsi Cadwaladr, said they were working to ‘accommodate newly referred patients’ within existing services in Wales.

He said they would be writing to GPs about the changes – and added that the move would not hit cancer, A&E or maternity patients.

The trust said it treated 23,500 Welsh patients in 2016-17 at a cost of £31.2million.

Sir Duncan Nichol, who is the chairman of the hospital’s trust, last year warned it was ‘hard to countenance’ treating Welsh patients at an annual cost of ‘up to £4million’.

He argued the hospital was not being paid for all its work because 20 per cent of its patients live in Wales. Its accounts will be in deficit by £12.7million by this month. The NHS in Wales contributes 11 per cent of the income for the Countess of Chester.

And Betsi Cadwaladr is the second largest funding provider to the hospital.

NHS figures show that A&E department attendances at the Countess have risen by more than 10,000 since 2012-13 – with a total of 78,826 in 2017-18.

A Welsh government spokesman said: ‘Along with NHS Wales representatives, Welsh Government has agreed a process of engagement with Department of Health and Social Care officials and representatives from the English NHS to discuss cross-border party arrangements.

‘ In the context of ongoing engagement, any actions taken by English providers to limit access for Welsh patients on financial grounds are unacceptable and not in the spirit of reaching a crossborder agreement with English NHS representatives.’