A Welsh authorities minister has accused the UK’s well being secretary of “a cheap political stunt” after he instructed sufferers in Scotland and Wales may very well be handled in England to scale back ready lists.
Steve Barclay stated he was “open to requests” for sufferers who had been ready a very long time for therapy.
Health is a devolved matter and comes beneath the duty of the Labour authorities in Wales and SNP in Scotland.
Wales’s well being minister Eluned Morgan stated the supply from her English counterpart appeared “very odd”.
Recent figures confirmed 5% of sufferers on ready lists in England had been ready greater than a 12 months on the finish of June.
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The Welsh authorities stated it didn’t have official figures on the variety of particular person sufferers ready to start out therapy.
NHS Wales figures present round 18% of affected person pathways had been ready greater than a 12 months.
Patient pathways is the overall variety of waits not the variety of particular person sufferers on ready lists and a few sufferers could also be on multiple pathway.
“I think it’s a cheap political stunt for the summer and it seems very odd for a man who’s got 7.5 million people waiting on lists in England to be offering this kind of service beyond his borders,” Baroness Morgan stated.
“Where on earth he’d find the capacity from I don’t know, but if the offer’s free then I certainly would want to take it up but my guess is this is just a cheap political stunt.”
‘Challenged’
The well being minister acknowledged Wales was “challenged” when it got here to ready lists however cautioned in opposition to direct comparisons as a result of alternative ways ready lists are measured both facet of the border.
“The fact is that we are challenged in terms of waiting lists in Wales but we count very differently, we include for example the number of people waiting for therapies,” the minister added.
“The number of people waiting for diagnostics. None of that is counted so you do have to compare like with like and we don’t do that when it does come to waiting lists.”
Scotland’s well being secretary Michael Matheson instructed Westminster ought to focus on the “many issues south of the border”, similar to medical doctors’ strikes.
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Mr Barclay additionally instructed he want to see nearer working between governments on well being, a suggestion backed by Baroness Morgan.
“We’re more than happy to cooperate,” she stated.
“In the past we used to have weekly meetings with UK health ministers, but since Steve Barclay’s been in power since October, we’ve had two.
“So this can be a man who instantly appears very transformed to the reason for devolution when he needs to attain a political level.”
Content Source: information.sky.com