(Title Image: © Copyright Dennis Turner and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence BY-SA-2.0)
An agreement has been reached between the Welsh Government and NHS officials in England which means a dispute that saw non-emergency patients from Wales being denied treatment at the Countess of Chester Hospital is now resolved.
A new cross-border treatment deal will see an increase in the amount of money Wales pays the English NHS to treat Welsh patients, which has been blamed on changes to treatment tariffs as part of the internal market in the English NHS (where some NHS trusts “buy” services from others). The internal market in the Welsh NHS was abolished in 2009.
Darren Millar AM (Con, Clwyd West) said his party would be “keeping a close eye on how the Welsh Government moves forward with this situation, holding it to account and ensuring patients are not left to suffer again thanks to its disastrous inability to plan ahead with our healthcare system”.