First Minister accused of failing to deliver on modernising Welsh NHS
Wales’ First Minister has been accused of allowing “a digital divide” to develop between Wales and England after patients across the border were promised full access to their health records via an NHS app.
The UK Government announced earlier this week that new laws are set to be introduced to make patient records available across all NHS hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulance services in England.
NHS app
And plans for a “single patient record” have been unveiled, which will summarise all of a patient’s health information, test results and letters in the NHS App, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed.
Plaid Cymru’s Health spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor recently announced that a Plaid Cymru Government would grant patients access to digital health records.
Following the announcement he criticised Eluned Morgan’s ‘modernise the NHS’ placard she displayed during the General Election campaign, saying it was a sign of “electioneering before meaningful action.”
Digital divide
He said: “Accelerating the pace of moving the Welsh NHS from the analogue to digital age will benefit clinicians and patients alike, ensuring a more effective service for everyone.
“Despite health being devolved to Labour-run Wales, the First Minister campaigned to modernise the NHS in the run-up to the General Election, even holding up a placard on the campaign trail!
“With patients in England promised full access to medical records, test results and letters from doctors available on an NHS app, it seems that Eluned Morgan put electioneering ahead of meaningful action in Wales.
“We’re all left wondering what exactly Eluned Morgan was promising for Wales beyond allowing a digital divide to develop between patients in Wales and England.
“At Plaid Cymru’s Annual Conference, I promised that a Plaid Cymru government would grant patients access to digital health records – a level of commitment sadly absent from Labour’s ambitions in Wales.
“Currently the digitisation of our Health service in Wales has been too fragmented with patients and clinicians alike failing to access their data from a central point.
“Labour’s failure to invest in this means that we are many years behind where we should be, and patients in Wales will remain in the analogue age when patients in England power forward with digitisation. It’s time for change in Wales.”
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The problem is actually greater than patients not being able to access records. I live in North Powys on the border with England. Virtually all hospital treatment is therefore in an English hospital, but any scans, x-rays, blood tests etc, arranged by my GP at the local (very small) hospital are not visible to the consultants in the English hospitals. The consultants therefore have to either request the results of the tests and scans or very likely re-do them. Which ever way it is done, it is additional delay and/cost. We really must have a cohesive system that is not… Read more »
Why when medical suppliers across the border e- mail their patient orders to Welsh Surgeries,the prescriptions are sent by post back to them resulting in delays due to the poor postal service experienced by many?
Yes this is a problem but so is recruitment, student nurses paying fees, really, and then upto a third leaving before they are even qualified as they cannot afford to complete the course. How do you atract the brighest and the best when they naturally gravitate to the big cities where career advancement and the life is so more attractive that Withybush of Bangor? This in itself leads to so many problems.