Hat Tip to Madeleine Brindley
North Bristol NHS Trust, which runs Southmead and Frenchay hospitals in Bristol, said it is not being paid for treating Welsh patients and so has imposed a ban on patients from wales to safeguard their financial position.The situation does not affect emergency treatment.
The action comes just weeks after English NHS trust chief executives claimed they were losing tens of millions of pounds a year by treating Welsh patients.
Tom Taylor, who runs the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee that he was £2m down per year, adding NHS trusts in Bristol, Hereford and Chester were in the same position.
The ban comes a week after it was claimed thousands of patients from outside of Wales were registering with Welsh GPs to qualify for free prescriptions.Statistics released last week appeared to show the number of people registered with Welsh GPs is much greater than the total population.The figures revealed Welsh doctors have more than three million people on their books, significantly more than the total population.
And it follows Health Minister Edwina Hart's comments that she wants as many Welsh patients to be treated in Wales as possible, when services can be provided safely and effectively.Although the vast majority of patients living along the South Wales and England border receive hospital treatment from Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust, a number in the Chepstow area are referred to Southmead and Frenchay hospitals. It is understood that some GP surgeries in the area have experienced problems in referring patients to North Bristol.In some cases they must first have approval from Monmouthshire Local Health Board, but on other occasions they have been told no patients will be admitted to the hospitals.
An internal North Bristol NHS Trust memo is headed “urgent attention” and is addressed to all outpatient receptionists, ward receptionists, secretaries and staff who book in outpatients and list patients for surgery.
It said: “Please DO NOT book Welsh patients/residents with follow- up outpatient appointments and/or new outpatient appointments. DO NOT list Welsh patients/residents for surgery at NBT. “It is regret (sic) that NBT find it necessary to take this action that relates to the difficulty associated with non-payment for treatment provided to Welsh residents. “It is for these reasons only that this action has to be put in place to safeguard NBT financial position.”
Figures released yesterday by the Welsh Assembly Government reveal that more than 49,000 Welsh patients travelled to England last year for treatment.Dr David Bailey, chairman of the Welsh GPs’ committee, said: “It should never get to the stage where patients are refused treatment because of funding issues. “If this affects patients directly then that is incompetence of organisations. But the trust does have a valid point if it is not getting paid for services it has provided.”
Comment from the Minister would be good, no patient should be put at risk over red tape or money.
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10 comments:
'Comment from the Minister would be good, no patient should be put at risk over red tape or money'
that was if Rhodri actually knew what is going on with regards the Health Service transfer between England and Wales which is very doubtful.
should this be down to reclusive Edwina Hart to comment on.
This woman needs to be given a course in socialisation and communication.its unheard of for a minister to refuse to be publically accountable
anon, I was thinking the same has anybody seem Edwina Hart this morning, this is real embarassment for the Welsh NHS and WAG and as usual no comment.
why the shock, Labour have made an art form out of the lack of acceptability, im sure they will blame administration errors if they can be bothered to comment at all and don't count on Minister's appearing.
Health Issues are life and death it makes you wonder why the Assembly Government or at least the Civil Servants weren't on top of this.
What always amazes me is that the welsh public actually put up with such poor health delivery and keep on voting for Labour in their droves.
Routeinley GP's can not refer directly to NBT, they have to seek permission first from their LHB and or Health Commission Wales.
If a patient is treated at this Trust the bill is picked by the LHB or HCW, both bodies are extremely slow at agreeing treatment times and paying bills so no wonder NBT is being anti Welsh.
Meh, I agree with Edwina Hart over this, I don't see why we should be paying for people in Chepstow to be treated in Southmead just because it's a few miles closer than the Royal Gwent.
Unless its a treatment that Wales can't provide, like childrens' heart surgery or a PET scan, or you're stuck in the wilds of mid-Wales and need to go to Oswestry, I can't see the need to let scarce NHS resources flow over the border.
Interesting! Have you seen that similar issues have led to the suggestion that a Cheshire village, Audlem, should become part of Wales. More info
Lyndon
The reason they go over the border is they cannot get treatment closer when they need it,as Welsh Trust are not up to or funded to provide what they need.
It is actually Edwina Harts and Welsh Labour Policy policy to provide for them over the border.
Hi Nick
Yes, I read it this morning and its been on the news. Apparently although they cannot conjoin to us, they are hoping to highlight some of the benefits of devolved government.
I have friends close to the border who come over from Cheshire regularly for all sorts of shopping, entertainment, eating, etc.
They too would love to be part of Wales, their council tax would be so much lower they tell me.
Been slow in mentioning this, the WAG are looking for comments from Joe Public about the reorganisation of the NHS and the reduction of LHB's from 22 to 8 (Goodbye Merthyr LHB you won't be missed).
Please please will all of you out there visit the consultation pages of the WAG website and take some time to post a response.
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