Wales to use private care to cut NHS waiting lists

Private healthcare will be used to reduce long waiting times in the NHS, the Welsh health secretary has said.

Jeremy Miles said £50m allocated to tackle the problem will be given to health boards to provide more treatments, tests and outpatient appointments.

He promised 16,000 more people will be treated by the end of March 2025, with private hospitals used where necessary.

Plaid Cymru accused Labour of having to absorb added costs from their "mismanagement" of the health system.

The party launched its own plan to tackle problems governance in the NHS on Tuesday.

It called for a range of changes including taking decisions on putting health boards into special measures out of the hands of politicians.

Wales saw record waiting times published in October with the list passing the 800,000 mark for the first time.

The total number of patient pathways - the number of places a patient is waiting on a list - rose by more than 3,500 in August to 800,163.

Those waiting the longest continued to rise - more than 169,609 for more than a year and 24,193 for more than two years.

A sum of £28m had already been pledged in October to tackle the longest waits, and a further £22m was announced at Welsh Labour conference at the weekend.

Jeremy Miles told the Senedd chamber on Tuesday the cash would be made available to health boards to spend on their plans immediately, "to see more people and, where necessary, to use private hospital capacity to end long waits".

He promised it would allow for an extra 14,000 tests by the end of March 2025, and up to 20,000 more outpatient appointments by the end of March 2025.

A total of £3m would also be spent to tackle the longest waits for neurodevelopmental assessments.

'25 years of failure'

Conservative Senedd shadow health minister Sam Rowlands welcomed the involvement from the private sector.

"I'm not sure if some of your colleagues will approve of that, but it's something we've long called for, that cross-sector collaboration to tackle waiting lists here in Wales."

He also said a "few million here and there" was not going to fix a "systemic failure that is taking place at the moment".

Mabon ap Gwynfor, health spokesman of Plaid Cymru, told BBC Wales: "Of course we welcome steps to tackle the waiting lists and understand that extra capacity is required to do this but, once again, like with agency staff money that should be going to treat patients will be going to shareholders.

"We shouldn't be in this position and it's a sign of 25 years of failure to invest in the workforce and ensuring that we have an estate fit for the 21st century."

Earlier on Tuesday Plaid Cymru launched a report into governance in the NHS, arguing the service is currently "confused" and "overly complex".

It called for Wales' NHS Executive to be separated from government and given responsibility for day-to-day operational matters in the NHS.

Plaid argued that decisions on whether to escalate intervention in a health board - such as putting it in special measures - should be taken out of the hands of politicians and given to the NHS executive.

At the launch, Mabon ap Gwynfor said that he also no longer supported the break-up of Betsi Cadwaladr health board, which has been Plaid policy in the past.

He said the "problems facing Betsi", which has been in special measures for most of its existence, "aren't unique to Betsi".