UK and Welsh Governments team up to tackle record high NHS waiting lists in Wales

The UK and Welsh governments have joined forces in a bid to reduce NHS waiting lists and improve healthcare on both sides of the border.

The collaboration, which will be unveiled at the Labour Party Annual Conference by Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens, will see both administrations share best practices in a bid to address key challenges facing NHS England and NHS Wales.

Although healthcare is devolved in Wales, this initiative marks the first time the two governments will work closely together on such a scale.

Cross-border cooperation has long been discussed but rarely implemented. Under the previous Conservative administration, there were discussions about collaboration, but these failed to result in concrete action.

The new cooperation, according to Jo Stevens, is “the first step in a bold new partnership” that will deliver tangible benefits for patients and medical staff.

It comes as NHS waiting times in Wales continue to reach record highs.

Last week Wrexham.com reported that there are more than 616,000 patients in Wales waiting to begin their NHS treatment.

The worrying new figures are the equivalent of one-in-four people in Wales on a waiting list.

The NHS in Wales has also continued to fail to meet its own targets for emergency departments and ambulance response times.

First Minister Eluned Morgan, who served as health minister for several years, has come under fire for “passing the buck” over the record high waiting times.

At the Labour Party Annual Conference Jo Stevens MP and First Minister Eluned Morgan are expected to set out new ways of working together to “deliver an NHS fit for the future.”

As part of the partnership Labour say it will focus on improving dentistry appointments and deliver 40,000 extra GP appointments a week.

More on how these targets will be achieved are expected to be outlined during the party’s conference.

Jo Stevens, Welsh Secretary, said: “Healthcare is one of the biggest shared challenges our two governments face and we are acting quickly to tackle it.

“These practical, common-sense steps could deliver real change on the ground for patients and clinicians. Until now, cheap political point scoring by the previous UK Conservative government made it impossible.

“This is only the first step in a bold new partnership between UK and Welsh Labour governments that will help deliver better care for patients and drive down waiting lists.

Eluned Morgan, First Minister of Wales, said: “People are rightly proud of the NHS, which was created here in Wales.

“They want to see the governments in Wales and the UK working together to ensure they have better access to care – whether that’s to an NHS dentist or to a planned operation.

“We don’t have a monopoly on good ideas and there’s lots we can learn from our closest neighbours and we have lots we can share with our colleagues in NHS England, where we have already made changes to our NHS.

“We are ready to harness the power of two Labour governments, with the same values and the same belief in our great National Health Service, working together to improve services for people on both sides of the border.”

However opposition parties in Wales have argued that today’s announcement fails to address the fundamental issue of NHS waiting times.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson for Health and Social Care, Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, argued that the partnership lacks clarity and the radical action needed to improve healthcare.

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS said: “We need to be investing properly in the preventative agenda to keep people out of hospital and harnessing technological innovations to bring care closer to home.

“We need radical action to tackle the deep-rooted issues of staff retention, investment and modernisation of the NHS estate, as well as securing a fair funding deal for Wales from Westminster.

“The reality is that Wales’ NHS has been underfunded and mismanaged by successive Welsh Labour governments for over two decades, leading to some of the longest waiting lists in the UK – and needs more than cosmetic collaboration with Westminster.

“While the UK and Welsh Labour governments tout this new partnership as a step forward for the NHS, it lacks clarity on how this will work in practice and doesn’t appear to offer the radical action required to address the underlying crisis faced by the Welsh NHS.

“We must also ensure that any future co-operation does not dilute Welsh health governance.”

Commenting on the news that the Labour Welsh Government will be working with the UK Government for the first time to cut NHS waiting lists, Sam Rowlands MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister said: “This is long-overdue, but welcome news.

“The Labour Welsh Government rejected this offer from the UK Conservative Government for party political reasons, putting patients at risk.

“Labour must also accept some responsibility and put their full focus back onto the NHS and deliver more doctors and nurses, instead of politicians in the Senedd.”