What steps is the Welsh Government taking to avoid the cancellation of planned surgery?
The Welsh Government has invested nearly £250 million this year to help the NHS in Wales recover from the effects of the pandemic and to help reduce the backlog of patients. Health boards have been using this funding to increase capacity locally, as well as to outsource patients to alternative providers, both locally and in England. As part of the planning process for winter, the plans for delivering planned care are adjusted to reflect the anticipated increase in unscheduled care demand, particularly in early January, and as such, postponements should be kept to a minimum.
Whilst we endeavour to ensure all planned surgery takes place, there are occasions when due to other pressures, difficult decisions have to be taken and some routine elective surgery will be postponed. Health boards have been able to use the local choices framework where appropriate to help make these decisions, with health boards maintaining cancer and essential services activity. All health boards have needed to deploy this framework during December 2021 and January 2022, resulting in some postponement of planned care activity. When operations are postponed, I expect health boards to ensure this is communicated appropriately to patients and for new dates to be arranged as quickly as possible.