Welsh Government announces funding to cut hospital waiting times
Health Secretary Jeremy Miles has announced funding of £28m to help cut NHS waiting times.
The funding will pay for more evening and weekend appointments and regional working to target waiting times in specialties such as orthopaedics, ophthalmology, general surgery and gynaecology.
Health boards will also free-up outpatient appointments for new patients to be seen by reducing the number of automatic follow-ups in cases where they are not needed.
Interventions
The Welsh Government claim that the interventions will cut the number of people waiting more than two years for treatment, waiting times for a first outpatient appointment and ensure more people receive diagnostic tests in eight weeks.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Jeremy Miles said: “Reducing waiting times is a national priority – for people across Wales, for us and the NHS. This new funding will be used by health boards to deliver a range of schemes that will start almost immediately.
“They will target the longest waits in orthopaedics, general surgery, ophthalmology and gynaecology by increasing capacity for more people to be seen and treated through overtime and more regional working.
“The NHS is working very hard to reduce the backlog, which built up during the pandemic – this is additional funding, over and above the recovery money we make available every year, to support the NHS to cut the longest waits and improve access to planned care.”
Regional centre visit
The Health Secretary is announcing the funding during a visit to Nevill Hall Hospital, in Abergavenny, where he will meet Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s teams working on ophthalmology and endoscopy waiting lists.
The Llanwenarth suite, which will become a regional centre for cataracts, was one of the plans put forward by health boards to tackle long waits.
Nicola Prygodzicz, CEO of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said:”We are incredibly grateful to the Welsh Government for this significant investment, which will make a real difference in reducing waiting times for patients across Gwent.
“We are committed to using the additional resources effectively to address the longest waits, particularly in high-demand areas such as orthopaedics and ophthalmology
“This investment supports our continued efforts to provide timely, high-quality care for our communities.”
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Waiting times are a function of staffing and demand. Extra cash will not magic up more qualified surgeons just pay for more administrators and public relations spivs. Where will the qualified surgical staff appear from?
It’s such a pity that this huge problem was not tackled before it got out of hand. On a recent emergency visit to a hospital there didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency with the staff there. We found the staff very pleasant but on the other hand were very lackadaisical. We waited from midday until 7pm for a blood test result that was supposed to be only 30 minutes. They had to be constantly reminded that we were there. We saw more staff carrying cups of Costa coffee and gossiping about their social life than were attending to… Read more »
That’s not uncommon. Too much coffee and pockets of staff lacking any sense of urgency. Management are mostly suited up in their ivory towers doing a 9 to 5 ( if you are lucky). Not much evidence of shop floor management and logistic awareness.
My wife finally got result of bone scan performed in April this year, over 6 months later confirming she has osteopedia, now she can get some treatment, in meantime 2 scans a few months apart for unrelated condition recently showed she had fractured bones she was unaware of and probably down to the osteopedia according to doctor.
It’s not just waiting to get an appointment it is the wait getting results.
Why do surgeries in Wales send prescriptions by post to suppliers of medical products rather than via e-mail as in England etc. Especially as the postal service is not always reliable considering the ever increasing charges!!!
In defence of my local clinic which is by no means the best or most accessible, they certainly use the online transmission to my meds supplier. That’s one part of their performance About which I’ve never had a complaint.