Patient waiting times will increase at neighbouring hospitals

Powys Teaching Health Board members (PTHB) have agreed to increase the waiting times for treating Powys residents in English hospitals.

At today's meeting of Powys Teaching Health Board, members met to agree the annual plan for 2025/2026.

PTHB needs to find savings and cuts worth over £26 million next year to move from a £38.4 million deficit to a £12 million target control deficit set by the Welsh Government.

And £8.6 million worth of savings would be made by slowing down the waiting times in English hospitals to match those in Wales.

Llais is an independent statutory body that gives Welsh residents a voice on health and social care services.

Llais chief officer in Powys, Katie Blackburn, spoke at the meeting. Katie Blackburn said: “One of the things we hear all the time is the impact of patients having to wait for services, on themselves and their families and those things haven’t changed since January.

“The sadness is that this proposal in effect is levelling down rather than levelling up.”

She said that the decision would have an impact on between 2,000 and 10,000 people.

Ms Blackburn warned: “There will be significant amounts of work to be done in supporting individuals and families in waiting to access services.

“This is a short term decision that will have long term implications for patients.”

Director of planning performance and commissioning, Nicola Davies, said: “Health care is a devolved matter, and it is legitimate for administrations to set ambitions in terms of quality and performance.

“Our plan is to set activity levels to meet the ministerial measures.”

PTHB vice-chair Kirsty Williams said: “There’s been a very clear steer from the Welsh Government to commission only what we can afford.

“But there is huge disquiet and discomfort on the consequences of commissioning across the border where Powys patients have been fortunate to experience quicker waiting times.”

She asked what alternatives had been looked at and what the consequences would be if the board voted against the plan.

Director of finance Pete Hopgood explained that  “other more blunt actions,” would have been to stop the use of all agency staff, locum doctors, and overtime.

“Which would mean we would have to contract our capacity and that would have an immediate impact in terms of our population,” said Mr Hopgood.

Board chairman Dr Carl Cooper then recommended that the plan be approved, but that the deficit be brought down to £16 million.

The board unanimously agreed to this, and the plan will be submitted to the Welsh Government by the March 31 deadline.