Betsi Cadwaladr board repaid £1m for waiting list failure

Betsi Cadwaladr had to repay £3m in 2017/18 for a similar failure

A health board which failed to hit waiting list targets has had to pay £1m back to the Welsh Government.

Betsi Cadwaladr, which serves north Wales, faced action after almost 6,000 patients waited more than eight months for hospital treatment.

The board, which is in special measures, fell 216 short of its goal of cutting the waiting list to 5,700.

Betsi Cadwaladr overspent by £41.3m last year, despite an extra £20m from the government to boost performance.

Papers to be discussed at a health board meeting in Llandudno on Thursday reveal the government has triggered a claw-back mechanism to retrieve some of the money, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The board had to repay more than £3m for a similar waiting list failure in 2017/18.

In a report, director of finance Russell Favager warned health bosses they faced a number of "critical financial risks" over the next 12 months.

One area he highlighted was spending on agency staff, which exceeded more than £30m in the past year.

The meeting will also be given an update on the continuing dispute over payments to the Countess of Chester Hospital for treating outpatients from Wales.

Mr Ravager said negotiations over potential changes in charges for cross-border treatment posed a further risk to Betsi Cadwaladr's financial status.