The BBC report that the Welsh NHS faces making more than £380m worth of cutbacks by next April, with managers saying it is the biggest challenge they have faced in 20 years.
They say that targets have been imposed on staff pay and changes made to hospital services to reduce costs this financial year. Some health boards predict fundamental changes to reduce costs. Some have already imposed “rigorous vacancy controls” and said there would be “fundamental service reconfiguration” in years to come.
One health board document warns that “tension will increase” between what patients will expect and what the NHS can provide. The largest health organisation in Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has an annual budget of over one billion pounds, but faces a savings target of more than £70m in 2010-11.
These cuts are based on budgets provided to the Welsh Government by the previous Labour administration and is unrelated to the comprehensive spending review or the emergency budget. They show how much work is needed to get the Welsh NHS to live within its means and the impact of a failure to act by Labour and Plaid Cymru on warnings that a fifth of the NHS budget is not being spent effectively.
Update: Commenting on claims by David Miliband that Wales will be hit hard by UK spending cuts, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said: “David Miliband should ask himself why after 13 years of Labour, Wales is left with a third of children living in poverty, a wider gap between rich and poor than under the Conservatives and the lowest social mobility in Western Europe. It was his Government that was responsible for growing inequalities in the UK economy – allowing the south east of England to overheat whilst areas in Wales suffered.
“Labour left the country with the largest budget deficit in UK peacetime history. Tackling Labour’s huge deficit is essential to restoring growth in the economy and giving people hope for the future.”
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