Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the £69.899 million identified in the NHS Wales Summarised Accounts 2016/17 that was spent on private providers, and outline how much was spent by each health board and the type of services commissioned by this spend?
The £65.899 million in the Local Health Board Summarised Accounts 2016-17 for expenditure on healthcare from private providers is analysed by health board as follows:
|
Note 2.2 Expenditure on healthcare from other providers - Private Providers |
2016-17 |
|
|
£m |
|
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg |
8.155 |
|
Aneurin Bevan |
6.935 |
|
Betsi Cadwaladr |
5.177 |
|
Cardiff & Vale |
9.121 |
|
Cwm Taf |
7.667 |
|
Hywel Dda |
4.448 |
|
Powys |
1.793 |
|
Welsh Health Specialist Services Committee |
22.758 |
|
Consolidation adjustments |
-0.155 |
|
Total |
65.899 |
Note: The activities of the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC), which is responsible for the joint planning of Specialised and Tertiary Services on behalf of Local Health Boards, are included in the accounts of their host organisation, Cwm Taf University Health Board. Consolidation adjustments relate to technical accounting eliminations required for the preparation of the summarised account, where transactions arise between health boards.
I expect NHS Wales to use the private sector for healthcare activity only when there is insufficient capacity in the NHS. The majority of activity should be within NHS Wales, or NHS England when appropriate.
Welsh Government does not require health boards to provide detailed information on their private provider spending. These amounts would include their expenditure with independent sector providers for additional capacity, but would not include payments to NHS Wales staff for additional waiting list work, or to English NHS providers. It is worth noting that expenditure on specialist services accounts for over a third of private patient activity. This includes services such as parenteral nutrition, specialist mental health services such as medium secure, as well as proton beam therapy.
Although the amounts above only relate to 2016-17, a number of health boards did procure additional private sector capacity in 2017-18 when NHS Wales did not have sufficient capacity within the time periods required. There was a particular issue this year when NHS England stopped elective activity in the winter months (January and February) and some health boards in Wales sought additional private sector capacity to maintain their plans to reduce the number of patients waiting over our national targets. The equivalent expenditure for 2017-18 will be confirmed following the audit of the NHS accounts.
It is worth noting that the equivalent expenditure on private providers by the English NHS in 2016-17 was over £ 9 billion. That equates to nearly eight times the spending by NHS Wales when adjusted using the Barnett formula.