When will the Welsh Government publish a detailed plan for the recovery of elective orthopaedic services in Wales?
The national orthopaedic board recently commissioned the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Team to carry out a review of orthopaedic services across Wales. The board is completing a blueprint for the future of orthopaedic services. This complements the GIRFT work and will form the basis of the orthopaedic clinical strategy. This work is reaching the final stages of its work and I have a meeting scheduled with the team later in June to discuss the emerging recommendations.
We have set ambitious and stretching targets in our planned care recovery plan to reduce waiting times and to reduce the backlog of people waiting to be seen and treated, which has built up during the pandemic. However, there are specific challenges in some specialities, including orthopaedics, where, due to the high volume of people waiting to be seen, it may be harder to achieve these targets.
I expect health boards to do all they can and to use all available capacity, including the independent sector, to work towards and ensure these targets are achieved.
The NHS is also developing regional orthopaedic centres, such as the one at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, where orthopaedic services will be centralised for people from Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda university health boards. Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board is developing an orthopaedic hub at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital to provide protected elective orthopaedic capacity. In North Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is developing proposals for regional treatment centres for orthopaedics and ophthalmology.
A clinically developed national review of orthopaedic services will support the establishment of future sustainable models across Wales.