BMA: Recruitment issues hitting rural health budgets

Four Welsh health boards will have overspent by a combined total of almost £163m at the end of this financial year, analysis by BBC Wales reveals.

It will be the biggest single-year deficit ever recorded in the Welsh NHS, despite record investment, according to ministers.

One health board - Hywel Dda in west Wales - is responsible for more than 40% of the total overspend.

It has a forecast deficit of £69.6m by the beginning of April.

Dr David Bailey, chairman of the BMA's Welsh council, said rural health boards were having problems with recruitment - and this was having an impact on finances, including being forced to hire more expensive temporary staff to keep services going.