Angela Burns MS – the Shadow Minster for Health – is concerned at a report on Accountancy Daily website highlighting financial difficulties faced by NHS Wales health boards.
The Auditor General has sounded an alarm about NHS finances in Wales, after four of the seven health boards again failed to meet their financial duty to break-even over a three-year period, according to a review of their 2019-20 accounts.
Three of these – Hywel Dda University Health Board, Betsi Cadwaladr UHB and Swansea Bay UHB (known until 2016 as Abertawe Bro Morgannwg UHB) – also failed to meet their legal duty to have an approved three-year plan. Betsi Cadwaladr reached its unenviable fifth anniversary of being in special measures – meaning it is run directly by the Welsh Labour-led Government – last month.
This report coincides with one yesterday in the media about the Welsh Labour-led Government paying an accountancy firm £450,000 to balance the books of struggling Swansea Bay University Health Board.
Mrs Burns said:
“The various challenges – services provided as well as financial – that these health boards have faced are well-documented.
“NHS Wales, and the individual health boards, face increasing difficulties in trying to improve their financial performance and service provision while also managing the exceptional impacts of the pandemic.
“It requires urgent attention and considered action by the Health Minister to stave off further crises.”