Labour Accused of Putting Budgets Before Patients in Broken Cross-Border NHS System

The Liberal Democrats have criticised Labour governments in both Westminster and Cardiff Bay after raising serious concerns in the House of Commons last week over a new cross-border healthcare policy that has seen waiting times double for many patients in Powys.

Under the policy, patients from Powys needing treatment at English hospitals such as Shrewsbury, Telford, Oswestry and Hereford are facing significant delays. The Liberal Democrats say the changes mean patients are now being prioritised based on cost rather than clinical need.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Lib Dem MP for North Shropshire Helen Morgan raised serious concerns about the way Powys Teaching Health Board is handling referrals for patients requiring specialist treatment in England. She warned that patients are effectively being ranked by whether Powys Health Board is willing to pay for their treatment within a particular financial year, rather than how urgently they need care.

This approach is creating major problems for specialist providers such as Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and the associated Headley Court Veterans’ Centre, which serve large numbers of patients from Powys.

In response to the concerns raised, Labour Wales Office Minister Anna McMorrin insisted that Labour governments were “working in partnership” to ensure cross-border arrangements were fair and transparent. The Liberal Democrats have branded this claim as deeply out of touch with the reality facing patients and clinicians, arguing that the policy has already caused chaos across the border region.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire Helen Morgan MP:

“This is completely backwards. Patients are being treated like line items on a spreadsheet, not people who need care. If a hospital is ready to treat someone based on clinical need, politicians and health boards should not be standing in the way because of budget games.

“Labour can talk about ‘partnership’ all it likes, but this policy is causing chaos for both patients and hospitals and it urgently needs to be dropped.”

Adding his comments, Wesh Lib Dem MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe David Chadwick said:

“People in Radnorshire are fed up with a system that treats them as an inconvenience just because they live near the border. Labour has run the Welsh NHS for a generation, yet patients are still being bounced around while governments argue over who pays the bill.

“Healthcare should be about need, not postcode or politics. Labour Ministers in Cardiff Bay have been completely silent on this issue. The Liberal Democrats will continue to call for this discriminatory policy to be scrapped.”

ENDS