Powys patients will have to wait longer for hospital treatment to save money for the health board

The plan for 2025/206, was unanimously approved at a meeting of Powys Teaching Health Board on Wednesday, March 26.

It will mean hospitals in Hereford, Shrewsbury, Telford and Oswestry will be asked to operate on NHS Wales performance targets, slowing down treatment for Powys patients. These measures would begin from July 2025.

The Welsh targets include a 104 week referral to treatment time target and a 52 week outpatient target, but it will not include cancer patients, under 18’s or urgent cases.

Similar plans to make Powys patients wait longer for treatment in England were scrapped in January after a public outcry.

But they re-emerged as the health board says it is facing severe financial pressures. They have a budget deficit of £15.8 million in 2024/25. 

However it would increase significantly to £38.4m in 2025/26, a significant distance from the Target Control Total set by Welsh Government of a £12m deficit. With the actions outlined in the annual plan the health board has a revised forecast of £16m deficit.

The Board said it therefore needs to consider additional action to live within their means, to continue to fulfil its statutory Duty of Quality to its patients and citizens, and to respond to the expectations set out by Welsh Government in the NHS Wales Planning framework.

They said the alternatives to extending waiting times would have been to remove services or to cut staff contracts such as locum doctors and use of agency and bank staff and overtime.

The decision to slow treatment is likely to affect between 2,000 and 10,000 people.

The regional director of Llais, Katie Blackburn, a patient advocacy group, said the proposal was ‘quite disappointing’.

She said Llais was repeatedly told about the impact of patients having to wait for treatment on their families, friends, carers, mental health and work.

Ms Blackburn said the proposal is levelling down rather than levelling up and it was a short term decision that has long term implications.

The Board unanimously approved the annual plan with the chief executive Hayley Thomas and Chairman Carol Cooper signing it off before submitting it to Welsh Government by Monday.

Further information will be shared with patients and the public during the spring. 

Patients will remain waiting lists, and the hospital will contact them to arrange appointments and procedures in line with NHS Wales performance targets. All patients are advised to continue to attend appointments as normal.

Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe David Chadwick said: “This is an utterly disgraceful decision. These plans should have been abandoned the first time they were proposed. It is utterly ridiculous that waiting times are going to be deliberately extended when we should be focused on cutting them.

“People in Mid Wales are fed up with drawing the short straw when it comes to public services, and residents pay their taxes like everyone else. They don’t choose to use hospitals in Shropshire and Herefordshire – it's something they are forced to do because we don’t have any major hospitals of our own in Powys.

“The Welsh Liberal Democrats will fight these proposals all the way and I will be raising it in Parliament at the earliest opportunity and joining the commmuity in campaigning to reverse the decision made today."

Welsh Liberal Democrat Senedd Member for Mid & West Wales Jane Dodds said: “We are ultimately in this mess because the Welsh Labour Government has run down healthcare services in Wales to such a degree.

“Patients in Powys are now expected to wait longer because the Welsh Government is essentially saying Shropshire and Herefordshire are ‘too good’ at treating patients quickly and they cannot afford to match the quality of service.

"Labour promised to improve health care services in the General Election, yet they are actively forcing Powys Health Board to worsen the treatment of patients in Powys. It is appalling.

“The Welsh Government needs to get to grips with tackling the long waiting lists in the rest of Wales, not forcing Powys to go down to the lowest denominator.”