NHS England told to keep patients in Powys waiting for operations

Wales NHS patients who need knee and hip operations in England are faced with long delays after a health council asked English hospitals to copy longer waiting times in Wales.

The Powys Health Board announced the change because it could not afford the cost of the speed with which border operations were carried out, but patients said they were not informed.

Mel Wallace, 59, from Howey, Powys, was first informed that she would have a 12 -month wait for her hip replacement, but now faced 45 weeks of waiting after waiting for 59 weeks.

The director general of the Health Board of Directors, Hayley Thomas, said that people in the region “should be treated within the same period as residents from everywhere else in Wales”.

Previously, there was no difference in the way patients were treated, but since July 1, the health council has requested that any planned treatment for its patients in the hospitals of Hereford, Shrewsbury, Telford and Oswestry are based on average waiting times of the NHS Wales.

Almost 40% of the Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) budget is spent on services outside of its own borders – it does not have its own general district hospital.

The latest figures show that there have been 10,254 expectations of two or more for the treatments provided in Wales, against only 158 in England.

The Welsh government said that it was “determined to reduce waiting times and guarantee that everyone in Wales – including those of Powys – has fair and appropriate access to treatment”.

With shorter waiting times in England, the Powys Health Board could not afford to pay the bills due to the speed of operations and other planned care such as cataract surgery and diagnostic tests.

According to its annual plan, the application of waiting times for the NHS Wales would save 16.4 million pounds Sterling – the Welsh government declared that it had to save at least 26 million pounds Sterling and intervened in the finances, strategy and planning of the health council to respond to serious concerns.

This means that Powys people face two -year expectations for certain procedures, but it excludes various high -risk patients, including children and those with cancer.

Ms. Wallace liked to walk her dogs, garden, go to the gymnasium and drive her motorcycle, but now has trouble getting out of the car or putting her socks.

She moved to her home near Llandrindod Wells of Herefordshire in 2021 for the landscape and the lifestyle, but her experience with the Welsh NHS made him “wish that I did not move here”.

Despite her expectation for an operation starting before the change of rule, Ms. Wallace said “they cannot even be disturbed to send a letter to let people know that it will affect them”.

She wants politics to be overturned, but in the meantime, said that the waiting times given to those who already on the list should be honored.

Stephen Evans, 66, a local government officer of Builth Wells, owed a double replacement of the knee and declared in May that his first operation would be “in the coming weeks” in Hereford.

When he called the hospital to follow up, he was told that his expectations would be at least a year and said he had had no contact with the Health Council or the Welsh NHS.

“When your life is suspended because of a decision like this, you deserve the truth, not an excuse,” he said.

“I choose to live here, but I am still entitled to the same kind of medical treatment as a person who lives through the border in England.”

John Silk, 92, of Talgarth, was a regular golfer and went to the gymnasium until his osteoarthritis was too bad.

“I have a stick to walk on the way to the front door now and drive in the car is a nightmare,” he said.

He must have had an operation in Hereford in June and had gone to the hospital twice in preparation.

When he phoned to ask him why his knee replacement had been delayed, an “excitous” secretary he told him that he should wait another year due to budget cuts.

Like others, he heard nothing from the NHS Wales. “I want them to face what they are doing.

“They cause unnecessary pain and suffering. I don’t think it’s the idea of politics, right?”

The Director General of the Board of Directors of Health, Ms. Thomas, said: “We understand that the changes we have made to the way we have committed planned care services will be frustrating and disappointing for patients and their families.

“It is essential that we live in our means. We cannot continue to spend money that we do not have to provide faster access to certain parts of the county.

“Instead, we have to adopt a fairer approach that protects essential services for everyone.”

Brecon’s liberal democratic deputy, Radnor and CWM Tawe David Chadwick said he could not understand the decision given to reduce the waiting lists and put people back to work was the priorities of work governments in Cardiff and Westminster.

“It is not good enough and that is why the Welsh government must ensure that it gives financing enough financing of Powys Teaching Health to treat these people faster,” he said.

Wye Valley NHS Trust has also raised concerns, director general Jane Ives told a meeting of the board of directors that 10,000 elective appointments or procedures would be affected due to training effects.

“This is a very mediocre value proposal and has real impacts on patients,” she said.

Meanwhile, a PTHB meeting last week also heard that Shrewsbury and the Telford Hospital NHS Trust had not yet implemented the policy while negotiations continue “with an increasing risk of climbing”.

Shropshire and Community NHS Trust said they “continue to prioritize patient care on the basis of clinical needs”.