Gareth Lewis: Will cross-border working boost NHS?

Dentistry is one of the strands being looked at as part of this new cross-border approach

The NHS and politics are never far apart.

Health is the almost perennial chart-topper when it comes to lists of voters’ concerns.

In Wales, given the NHS was a Welsh invention, and given the current length of waiting lists, it also feels as personal as it does political.

So if you are one of the hundreds of thousands waiting for treatment, does the plan for more concerted cross-border co-operation to bring down waiting times announced at the Labour conference mean you’ll get seen quicker?

The short answer is that we don’t know, as we still don’t have the details of how exactly it will work.

How will sending patients over the border be paid for, what sort of capacity is there in England, which has its own issues with waiting lists, and are there targets?

How different will this be from current arrangements when Welsh patients go to England?

My understanding is that there are no targets at the moment and that the scheme will be run on a voluntary basis, co-ordinated by health boards in Wales and clinical commissioning groups in England after ministers and officials have given them more details on how to proceed.

More formal funding arrangements could then be forthcoming next spring.

First Minister Eluned Morgan said bringing NHS waiting lists down was her top priority

As for the politics, I’m told officials at UK government level have been pushing hard behind the scenes to get this announcement.

They are keen to show a practical application of what they say is a better working relationship between the two governments with Labour in charge.

Not surprisingly, the Conservatives are crying foul, having offered to treat Welsh patients in August last year when they were in charge at Westminster.

There was a conversation at ministerial level, but it progressed no further - dismissed as a PR stunt by then health minister and current FM Eluned Morgan.

The Tories say they also had a plan to fund the cross-border arrangements, and suspect that Labour do not.

There are two other strands to the new cross-border approach, one involving how Wales can try and make available the equivalent of 40,000 extra NHS appointments a week as is the plan for England.

The other is a brave visit to dentistry. The idea that there are lessons for England to learn might set a few teeth on edge given the well-documented issues that many Welsh patients have in getting an appointment.

The FM says bringing those waiting lists down is her top priority.

'Desperately needed' reform

Two governments working together to bring down NHS waiting lists in Wales was one of Labour’s general election pledges.

It led to questions at the time over whether Keir Starmer thought his Welsh Labour colleagues weren’t doing a good enough job.

Last week in Downing Street he declined to give a straight "yes" when asked if they were, and talked instead about the challenges the NHS was facing.

He also said that the NHS in Wales desperately needed reform.

To find out what part this might play in that reform you might need to do something you’ve already got used to.

Wait.