At yesterday’s Assembly Finance Committee Paul Davies, chairman of the All Wales Directors of NHS Finance told AMs that a billion pounds of the £5 billion spent was not being utilised appropriately.
As Betsan Powys reports he continued: “We don’t get it right now. Far too many patients end up in the wrong place, either being hospitalised when they shouldn’t be, or they stay in hospital too long, or they stay in primary care, and they should be in hospital, all those mistakes…(are) extremely costly, very expensive.
“It’s staff, it’s capacity, it’s beds, and it’s basically trying to say – are we making the best use of the five billion pound (budget) and we’re saying – we’re not. There’s a billion pounds that we’re not utilising appropriately.”
Commenting on the statement, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader, Kirsty Willams said: “It’s absolutely shocking that a fifth of the NHS budget is not being spent appropriately. While we acknowledge that this money is being spent on patient care, it is unacceptable that £1 billion is not being use to maximum effect to benefit patients. This raises very serious questions about the strategic management of our NHS and its ability to deliver value for Welsh taxpayers’ money.
“During difficult times like these it is absolutely essential that public money is being spent effectively. The Labour-Plaid government simply cannot afford to make mistakes with a billion pounds. Our budget is already stretched to the extreme and is set to become even tighter. Every million pounds, let alone every billion pounds must be working to the direct benefit of Welsh patients.
“I shall be writing to the Health Minister seeking further detail as to how this failure was to allowed to happen and what urgent steps she is taking to ensure effective management of our largest public budget line.”
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