Welsh NHS deficit risk

We welcome the Wales Audit Office report on NHS finances, which recognises the NHS is in a better financial position than at the same time last year. The report confirms again the urgent need for reconfiguration of NHS services that are sustainable and deliver better quality services to patients.

Health boards across Wales have been undertaking a great deal of work and taking action to reduce their spending levels. They are currently forecasting to deliver a further £220 million savings this year in addition to the £600 million they delivered over the last two years.

The Welsh Government is very aware of existing and future potential financial pressures on the NHS and is currently undertaking a mid-year review to chart the progress of the health boards' financial position. NHS organisations are making significant progress on delivering savings.

We will continue to work closely with all NHS organisations in monitoring and scrutinising the financial position on a continuous basis, with a view to ensuring that health boards will break even at the year end.

This update report shows that NHS bodies have struggled to manage within their current resource limits in the first half of the year. It is likely that there will be a significant deficit by the end of the year. NHS bodies are making progress with their savings plans, but this is clearly not sufficient. Overspends in key areas like pay and medicines suggest NHS bodies are struggling to contain cost pressures.

The NHS in Wales will be facing difficult choices and challenging times and will be giving evidence in PAC.

The Wales Audit Office does not intend to provide any further comment at this time and awaits the outcome from the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry.

The figures are alarming and show how vital it is that the Health Minister finally takes a hold of this situation.

The austerity cuts being imposed on the public sector by the Tory-Lib Dem government are now being felt in the NHS.

This crisis has been mounting for some time, despite the Minister’s assurances that bailouts to LHBs have ended.

She now needs to be honest about the scale of the problem.

This is a serious amount of money and I am deeply concerned that towards the end of the financial year, when budgets will be extremely tight, vital services will have to close putting patient care and safety at risk.

We saw this happen last year and some LHBs didn’t even manage to meet their financial targets. I fear that towards the end of this financial year, patients across Wales will start to really feel the consequences of Labour’s mismanagement of our NHS.

These damning figures confirm that the Welsh NHS is on the brink of financial meltdown.

The Wales Audit Office report flies in the face of recent assurances from the NHS Chief Executive that all health boards would break even by the end of the financial year.

This situation is now completely unmanageable. The financial challenge our health boards are facing is driving unpopular and dangerous service change; making targets more difficult to achieve and putting immense pressure on hardworking frontline staff.