Overspends spark fears for services
WELSH Health Secretary Vaughan Gething has refused to guarantee that services will not suffer because of multi-million-pound overspends at 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 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 added: “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 the overspends are “unacceptable” and states organisations that spend more than allocated “have not – and will not – be bailed out”.
Angela Burns, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Secretary, warned 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: “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.”
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.”