North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has highlighted the Labour Welsh Government’s commissioning of clinicians privately from elsewhere in the UK to “temporarily massage down politically embarrassing waiting list figures”.
Responding to the Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on NHS Waiting Times in this afternoon’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood stressed that this approach does not help in the long run and called on the Welsh Government to instead commission services to stop the crises happening in the first place.
He said:
“In your Statement, you said that ‘in North Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board still has more to do to meet its plan to cut long waiting times, but here too, there has been progress’.
“A senior Clinician at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board told me just two weeks ago that, in accordance with Welsh Government expectations, the Health Board is once again commissioning Clinicians privately from elsewhere in the UK to provide evening and weekend clinics and temporarily massage down politically embarrassing waiting list figures. I've actually previously attended one of those clinics myself, on a Saturday morning.
“Instead of reactively responding to crises, wouldn't it be better to do this openly and proactively in order to stop the crises happening in the first place?”
Responding the Cabinet Secretary said:
“I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. The focus that the Government has, as with the health board in North Wales, is making sure that patients get seen as quickly as possible.
“I make absolutely no apology for supporting the health board to do that and challenging the health board where that isn't happening. I'm sure that your constituents want to make sure that they get seen as quickly as possible for the treatments that they need. That is what we expect as a Government and that's what the health board is working to deliver.”
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Isherwood said:
“The sheer hypocrisy of this practice exposes both the damage repeatedly caused by the ideological Labour Welsh Government approach to service delivery and their cynical self-interest when dealing with the consequences.”
