Senedd hears of four-week wait in Cheshire and a three-year wait in Wrexham for glaucoma operations

Cross border working, and a comparison of wait times in England and Wales has been raised in the Senedd.

Sam Rowlands MS asked the Health Minister, “The First Minister has said that she’s ready to use the private sector in the Welsh NHS. Are you ready?”

The Minister Jeremy Miles replied, “The Welsh Government has made use of private sector capacity for the common good, if you like, for many years. We recognise that the priority that the Government attaches to reducing waiting lists means that we will have to look at whatever options are available.”

Rowlands pushed back at a section the Minister’s answer, noting “…for glaucoma operations in Wrexham at the moment, patients there are waiting three years on a waiting list for a disease that clearly has a massive impact on their daily lives. If you live in Cheshire, it’s a four-week wait, just across the border, because the health trust there has a partnership arrangement with a private sector company to deliver those operations. A four-week wait in Cheshire, a three-year wait in Wrexham. So, there are huge opportunities.”

“In terms of those targets that we mentioned, as well, it is disappointing that it seems as though many of the targets that are in place are not worth the paper that they’re written on. And the consequences of those targets not being met seem to pretty weak, to say the very least. And it is remarkable, as we heard again yesterday from the First Minister about this collaboration between the Welsh and UK Governments on cutting waiting lists and working together, it is remarkable that it was so light on the detail of what the collaboration should look like, because you would agree, I’m sure, that cutting waiting lists is surely one of your top priorities here in Wales—it’s what the people of Wales want to see. So, why is it that there does not seem to be a concrete plan for cutting those waiting lists?”

The Minister replied, “I think there is a plan for cutting those waiting lists. The point that the First Minister was making yesterday reflects the point that I have just made to the Member in my reply now, which is how important it is for the health service to look to best practice both within other parts of the organisation and also further afield, just as all the public services that we’re responsible for here in Wales take inspiration from best practice wherever that is.

“The point that the First Minister was making was that where we have seen, in parts of NHS England in this particular case, successful strategies for supporting reductions in waiting lists—and, absolutely, targets aren’t being met in England either, but there are elements of progress—the question is how we can work together to learn from that. Some of those will work, perhaps, for us in Wales, and some of them will not, but I think having that collaborative approach, where we can learn from things that have worked, is just sensible.”