MS welcomes ambitious plan to end long waiting times and transform planned care
Dawn Bowden MS, Welsh Labour’s Member of the Senedd for Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney, has welcomed the publication of a new ambitious plan to transform planned care in Wales and cut waiting times over the next four years by Welsh Labour’s Health Minister, Eluned Morgan.
The plan is being supported by an extra £60m – £15m a year over the next four years – for health boards. The Welsh Labour Government has now committed more than £1bn this Senedd term to help the NHS recover from the pandemic.
The plan, published this week, has been designed to help the NHS manage the backlog of appointments and treatments, which has built up during the pandemic and reduce waiting times for people with non-urgent health conditions.
The Health Minister said the plan aims to ensure no one will be waiting more than a year for treatment in most specialties by Spring 2025.
A series of stretching targets for health boards have been set out in the plan. Waiting times and waiting lists for planned care – routine referrals and non-emergency care – have been hugely affected by the pandemic across the UK.
At the start of the pandemic, the majority of appointments and treatments were postponed to enable the NHS to focus on caring for the large number of people with Covid-19. Subsequent waves of coronavirus infections have also affected activity levels in the NHS.
Rigorous but necessary infection control measures in the NHS, especially in hospitals, have transformed the way services are delivered and have reduced the number of planned appointments and surgeries which can be performed.
Welcoming the plan, Dawn Bowden MS said:
“Waiting times and waiting lists have grown considerably since the start of the pandemic. Reducing these will be a mammoth task. We need new solutions, more equipment, new facilities, and more staff to help diagnose people swiftly and innate planned care as quickly as possible.
“I’m delighted that the Welsh Labour Government is working with our fantastic NHS to ensure no one waits longer than a year for treatment by 2025. Over £1bn of investment will be directed, during the current Senedd term, to help the NHS recover from the pandemic and to treat people as quickly as possible.
As Wales moves beyond the emergency response to the pandemic, the way the NHS delivers some care has changed – people will only need to go into hospital when they need care, advice or services, which cannot be delivered as close to their home as possible.
The plan builds on these changes and sets the goal of 35% of all new appointments and 50% of follow-up appointments being delivered virtually in future. This will help to free up clinicians’ time so they can see and treat more patients.
Another key element of the plan is delivering more diagnostic tests outside hospitals and closer to people’s homes in primary and community care settings. This will save time. Plans for two community diagnostic centres will be developed this year, with more to follow by the end of this Senedd term.
An online website will be created where patients can get the information and support to manage their own conditions, helping people to manage their own health and reducing the number who need to be readmitted to hospital for treatment.