English hospitals on standby to treat Betsi Cadwaladr patients due to ‘operational pressures’
Minister for Health and Social Services Eluned Morgan has confirmed that some patients in the north of Wales could be transferred to English hospitals for treatment due to “operational pressures” over the coming month.
Patients could be treated at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital or Royal Stoke University Hospital after a contingency plan was agreed between Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Welsh Government officials and the national leadership team in NHS England.
In a written statement the minister said the arrangement was put in place due to “immediate operational pressures due to consultant availability and nurse staffing in vascular services within the health board.
“The fragility of the service led the Health Board to consider contingency plans should the service not be able to be delivered as currently configured with the primary concern being the ability to provide a safe service for the population of North Wales,” she added.
Criticism
Betsi Cadwaladr health board has faced mounting criticism over vascular services failings in the last two years, and yesterday was accused of letting frontline staff and patients down by Plaid Cymru Health spokesperson Rhun ap Iorwerth.
His comments follow the latest in a series of critical reports into Vascular Services in the north of Wales, which highlighted concerns in relation to the management of aortic patients following the completion of a review of patients’ notes.
in March Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) designated the boards Vascular Service as a Service Requiring Significant Improvement and a series of additional measures were introduced to ensure safe delivery of care to patients.
These measures were reviewed regularly, and two requirements (including dual consultant operating) were removed on 23 May 2022 following a review that showed they were not adding any safety benefits.
An extraordinary tripartite meeting was held on 26 May as part of the NHS Wales escalation framework and the NHS Wales Chief Executive recommended that the targeted intervention status at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board should be extended beyond mental health and governance issues to incorporate Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, focusing in particular on the vascular service and emergency department.
During July, a number of patient safety quality concerns were raised by the Vascular Quality Panel in relation to the management of aortic patients.
These were escalated to the Board and a number of additional safety measures were subsequently reinstated for aortic patients.
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How can this be resolved, we could start with a new health minister…get some expertise in Bangor…attract some attention from Cardiff who struggle to see beyond the ‘Beacons’…to share the funds more equitably…to consider those not in the M4 corridor as equal partners in Wales…for Plaid to not take us for granted, in their pursuit of (nuclear) power sharing …to stand up against Deputy Lee Waters in our name…to return Vaughan Gething to his old role in Health where he gained the trust of many of us across the political spectrum…and stop championing Nuclear power in the North of Wales… Read more »
As someone who lives in the Beacons, I can assure you that access to hospitals isn’t any better here, The people who look after our health decided a long time ago it was financially better for them to farm Powys residents out to other health authorities, now instead of popping into Brecon, we have to travel for at least an hour in any direction for anything but very basic treatment.
my reply is waiting for approval…
Let me know when the cows come home, it must be with Anoushka’s apology…
Imagine, if we had better N/S roads, WELSH hospitals could share the load.
It is really time to return to Clwyd and Gwynedd Health Authorities for most health services . Betsi has been a dreadful mistake from both a financial and health point of view 🥹
we should be grateful an English hospital was there to support. thank you!
Why we should be grateful for an english hospital to pick up the pieces due to welsh labour and their mantra of centralisation putting lives at risk and expecting english Nhs to pick up the pieces, ? we should be angry at how our service from Betsi Cad has fallen so low under Welsh labour, Welsh Labour can’t manage it, conservatives will sell it off to private healthcare- only route now is Plaid Cymru.’s Plan to reinstall The two health boards and rebuild the service.Mark Drakeford started the rot during his tenure as health minster, geithing claimed they were not… Read more »
A very worrying article on a chronically dysfunctional health board conveniently taken out of special measures not so long ago by the Welsh gov. And here we have a soft statement from Eluned Morgan that says no more than we already knew. Hardly challenging journalism. How independent are you Nation Cymru?
We all have our favourites, shame about the awful adverts on here now…