Wales’s well being minister Eluned Morgan hits again at Steve Barclay’s supply to deal with sufferers in England

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 could possibly be handled in England to cut back ready lists.

Steve Barclay said he was “open to requests” for sufferers who had been ready a very long time for remedy.

Health is a devolved matter and comes below the duty of the Labour authorities in Wales and SNP in Scotland.

Wales’s well being minister Eluned Morgan mentioned 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 yr on the finish of June.

The Welsh authorities mentioned it didn’t have official figures on the variety of particular person sufferers ready to begin remedy.

NHS Wales figures present round 18% of affected person pathways had been ready greater than a yr.

Patient pathways is the whole variety of waits not the variety of particular person sufferers on ready lists and a few sufferers could also be on a couple of 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 mentioned.

“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 towards direct comparisons because of the alternative ways ready lists are measured both aspect 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 consider the “many issues south of the border”, equivalent to medical doctors’ strikes.

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Mr Barclay additionally instructed he wish to see nearer working between governments on well being, a suggestion backed by Baroness Morgan.

“We’re more than happy to cooperate,” she mentioned.

“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 it is a man who abruptly appears very transformed to the reason for devolution when he desires to attain a political level.”