04-08-2025
Powys health board may be charged for waiting time policy
Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) is facing further resistance from English health trusts over its policy of intentionally increasing wait times.
The Wye Valley NHS Trust has confirmed that it may look to charge PTHB for the added costs of the controversial policy that was approved in March.
This could potentially damage the benefits of the policy for PTHB which made the move to save around £16 million a year as it faces large budget deficits.
The news comes after the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals (SaTH) Trust SaTH, confirmed it has so far not implemented the changes which would see waiting times for certain procedures double for Powys patients being treated in English Hospitals.
The Wye Valley Trust told the County Times the policy could have knock-on effects to its emergency departments and has labelled the policy as 'poor value for money'.
A spokesperson for the Wye Valley Trust said: 'We continue to work with the Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) and have outlined to PTHB the financial, operational and quality impacts of their intention to increase waiting times for routine elective patients.
'We have started to reduce activity for people who live in Wales with a Welsh GP practice who require an inpatient admission, as a direct result of the changes being implemented by Powys Teaching Health Board.
'We are concerned that patients who are having to wait longer to be seen due to this could increase attendances at our emergency department and within local primary care.
'Whilst recognising that PTHB need to manage within their budget, the administrative costs of enacting the policy, the increased costs of higher emergency activity, and the increased costs of catching up on this work in the future, make this plan, in our view, poor value for money.
'Patients are advised to please attend their appointment as normal. For patients currently on a waiting list, you will be contacted when your appointment is due.'
Help support trusted local news
Sign up for a digital subscription now:
As a digital subscriber you will get
Unlimited access to the County Times website
Advert-light access
Reader rewards
Full access to our app
MP For Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, David Chadwick has previously spoken in Parliament calling for the policy to be scrapped and labelled it 'a disaster from start to end'.
"It is extremely concerning that accounts from the Wye Valley Trust seem to indicate that Powys has provided no detailed modelling on the impacts of these changes to hospitals in Herefordshire, alongside the concerns they have raised about the knock-on impact on emergency care,' said Mr Chadwick.
"Given the Wye Valley Trust has also indicated it will be seeking to charge Powys for the administrative challenges and costs of implementing this new system, it isn't clear it would even be achieving its goal of cutting its budget deficit.
