A REPORT by Audit Wales last week showed Wales’ seven main health boards recorded a collective deficit of £151.9m in the last financial year of 2022-23.
Wales’ Labour health minister, Eluned Morgan today confirmed in a Written Statement that all seven Welsh health boards have been placed under higher levels of financial scrutiny for the first time.
Calling the situation ‘serious’, Plaid Cymru’s Health and Care spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor MS said the Minister has “lost grip” on the “entire sitaution” and said it should not have taken until now for the government to take action.
Mr ap Gwynfor said the Minister should “urgently address” the implications of escalating intervention arrangements and provide a “clear picture of the financial wellbeing of Health Boards” alongside a “meaningful plan” to give patients confidence ahead of increased winter pressures.
Back in the spring, health boards were already warning the Welsh government that their overspend this year would be much higher at about £650m.
Plaid Cymru’s Health and Care spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor MS said,
“All health boards in Wales are now in some form of escalated measures. This is serious.
“For the Government to publish this as a Written Statement with no opportunity for immediate Senedd scrutiny is a cynical move by a Minister that seems to have lost grip on the entire situation. It should not have taken until now for the Minister to realise the gravity of the situation health boards were in and to take action.
“The Health Minister must urgently address the implications of escalating intervention arrangements and provide both a clear picture of the financial wellbeing of Health Boards and a meaningful plan that gives confidence to patients, particularly with undoubted winter pressures approaching.”
