Concern over ‘green light’ for NHS privatisation in Wales
Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter
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.”
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I can see no problem in reducing very long waits for treatment by making support for treatment in European medical facilities easily available….even if it meant means testing with a patient contribution that many who had the resources would happily pay. That would give breathing space for the NHS to be sorted out. Just as Covid19 was a health emergency, so too is the current NHS fiasco and this warrants the same emergency Government borrowing. There is clearly funding available for Starmer’s pet belligerent fantasies.
I cannot see a way quickly at the moment without the private sector but not that they are allowed to become embedded indefinitely. A short term get us out of it. Labour really have to grab this by the neck and sort it and stop saying its OK, if they think its OK, then show your workings out.
They are already embedded in a covert way. Go see an orthopaedic consultant and get told that the waiting list is so many years and months then a discreet shift in the chat to introduce the idea of paying your way out of the problem. In no time at all, if you have the means, the painful knee or hip gets sorted within weeks. And the “clinic” will be adjacent to the main NHS facilities at your local general hospital. Apart from the consultant, other staff working on your op will be mostly NHS staff. Creeping privatisation is being achieved… Read more »
My guess is there is a kind of cosy balance between the NHS and the private sector, one that those with vested interest wish to maintain. While the under capacity of the NHS feeds a steady stream of customers to the private system, which is great for both business and private patients who can afford their care, a sudden flood of NHS referrals would probably be resisted. Over demand would damage their business model plus introduce longer wait times for the wealthy clients. Also, the private sector are likely to cry foul should the Government fund a large number of… Read more »
The thing about ‘private hospitals’ is that they don’t actually have surgical staff on the payroll. An operation done in the private sector is done ‘on-contract’ either by NHS consultants as a side-hustle or by a freelancer those periodically employed by the NHS as contract staff. This means sending Delyth to Liverpool for a private hip replacement which is then conducted by a surgeon whose day job is in Glan Clwyd. Doesn’t solve the problem of lack of clinical staff and merely introduces an extra management fee for what the NHS needs doing anyway.
I agree and that’s why it would have to be EU / European area based.
No surprise there, Blair’s govt was a big user of private health and privatised it more than most Govts.
During COVID my wife had scans at private hospital in Newport funded by NHS Wales.
Report went to NHS consultant at ABHB which took 2 months to get treatment schedule put in place. So didn’t really speed up the process.
My poor wife who has numerous Health issues for which I am her full time carer,was subject to Private Health taking on her Cataract surgery,it was rushed it went terribly wrong,she getting the blame for it,it,s shambolic, surgeons taking on extra work and rushing the job without consideration or propper assessment taking place.Please don’t go there NHS.