What action is the Minister taking to reduce the long waits at Morriston Hospital for specialist surgery with 1,768 orthopaedic and spinal patients currently waiting longer than the 36 week-target?
The Swansea Bay University Health Board, and the former Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, has had issues with long waiting times for a number of years. Over the last three years, the Welsh Government has made £150 million available to health boards, and Swansea Bay and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg UHBs have received a share of this funding to address the long waiting patients.
This year, Swansea Bay University Health Board received £6.5 million of this funding to help reduce waiting times across all specialities by March 2020. The health board has made progress over the last couple of years, reducing the longest wait and the number of people waiting over 36 weeks from a high of 4,715 in December 2017 to 3,262 in August 2019 and I expect to see further improvements.
However, the health board has been affected this year by continued unscheduled care pressures and HMRC tax and pension issues, which has resulted in the orthopaedic ward at Morriston being used to treat unscheduled care patients and consultants being unwilling to carry out additional waiting list initiative work.
The health board has been carrying out orthopaedic surgery at both Singleton and Neath Port Talbot hospitals, but this has not been major joint surgery. The health board is developing solutions to address the orthopaedic issue, including the ring-fencing of 10 beds on Clydach ward to start orthopaedic surgery, as well as looking at the possibility of outsourcing activity to providers in Wales and England.