Powys cross border patients miss out on £120m NHS cash
It has emerged that a £120 million fund that the Welsh Government announced last month to cut waiting times for Welsh patients will not include funding for Powys residents waiting for treatment in England.
Starting this week, some Powys patients will wait longer than English patients, when being treated in hospitals in England.
The plans to intentionally make patients wait longer by Powys Teaching Health Board were agreed back in March.
Powys patients are now facing slower access to treatment in English hospitals despite available capacity.
Powys Teaching Health Board has said it needed to bring about this action to live within its means and to respond to the financial expectations set out by the Welsh Government.
Montgomeryshire MS, Russell George, said that when news of a £120 million fund was announced last month to cut waiting times for Welsh patients, he wrote to the Health Secretary Jeremy Miles MS, and asked him to set out how the £120 million would benefit Powys patients who are on a waiting list in England.
After further questioning by Mr Geroge in the Senedd, Mr Miles confirmed that the funding would be targeted at Welsh health board waiting lists.
'Powys residents, who are waiting to be seen in other Welsh health boards, will also benefit from the additional funding,' said Mr Miles.
'As of April 2025, there were 380 outpatient pathways from Powys waiting more than 52 weeks at other Welsh health boards.
'This additional funding to support our ambitious plan to continue reducing long waits and the overall size of the wating list is targeted at Welsh health board waiting lists.'
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Mr George MS, said that people in Powys feel 'short-changed', and challenged the Health Secretary to ensure Powys Teaching Health Board receives sufficient funding to purchase healthcare based on shorter English waiting time standards, adding that the current situation 'treats Powys patients as second-class citizens''.
'After the debate, it's clearer than ever that the Welsh Government is again letting Powys down,' said Mr George.
'I again asked for clarification, and yet, Jeremy Miles MS did not address my requests that this additional funding should be used to pay hospitals just over the border in England to treat Powys patients, in the same timeframes as English patients are treated in the same hospitals.
'People in Powys will wait longer than patients just over the border, for the same treatment, in the same hospitals, due to the Welsh Government not being prepared to fund Powys Teaching Health Board adequately.
'This means Powys residents will wait longer for treatment because of financial constraints.
'This is a failure of political will, not resources.'
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