Plaid government to continue NHS outsourcing despite opposition to private sector role

Mark Mansfield

The new Welsh Government will have to continue using private healthcare providers to tackle NHS waiting lists, despite its opposition to outsourcing services, Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor has said.

Under the previous Labour administration, the number of patients waiting more than two years for treatment fell sharply from pandemic-era highs, helped in part by the increased use of private hospitals and clinics.

Plaid Cymru has previously been critical of the growing role of the private sector in delivering NHS care, arguing that long-term investment in staff, facilities and services is needed to create a sustainable healthcare system.

Speaking to ITV Wales’ Sharp End, Mr ap Gwynfor criticised what he described as the previous Welsh Labour administration’s “sticking plaster approach” to reducing waiting times, arguing that it relied too heavily on the private sector rather than expanding NHS capacity.

The Plaid Cymru minister said his government intends to build a more sustainable health service while accepting that private providers will still play a role in the short term.

“They were trying to tackle waiting lists, pulling down those two-year waits by using external sources all of the time, using a sticking plaster approach, without building capacity into the system, without building a sustainable NHS in Wales,” he said.

“That’s the difference between the previous administration and us.”

Spending on private healthcare providers by NHS Wales more than doubled during Labour’s final years in government.

Figures show that £61 million was spent on outsourcing services in 2019-20. By 2024-25, that figure had risen to £135 million as health boards sought to reduce lengthy waiting lists.

Despite his criticism of the approach, Mr ap Gwynfor acknowledged that the new government will continue to commission some treatments from private providers to ensure patients are not left waiting too long.

“It was an element of outsourcing using some of the private sector to bring those waiting lists, the urgent ones, down quickly because we don’t want too many people waiting too long on the system,” he said.

“It’s not fair on them. So in order to get those done, treated quickly, we’ll have to use an element of the private sector.”

Investing

However, he insisted the longer-term aim is to reduce reliance on outsourcing by investing in NHS capacity.

“What we’re doing differently, as I said, is building up that capacity so that we can wean ourselves off that, making sure that we develop internal capacity.”