By Paul Dicken
Arguments over funding for Welsh and English patients who receive treatment in hospitals across the border should be resolved by a government protocol, MPs have said.
Arguments over funding for Welsh and English patients who receive treatment in hospitals across the border should be resolved by a government protocol, MPs have said.The Commons’ Welsh affairs select committee claimed a permanent protocol between the Welsh Assembly Government and the Department of Health in Westminster would clarify the arrangements.
The committee’s report on cross-border health services, published on March 27, said there were potentially serious consequences of leaving individual organisations to cope with the tensions raised by different funding and commissioning arrangements for Welsh and English patients.
The chair of the committee, Hywel Francis, said he welcomed assurances from First Minister Rhodri Morgan that the border would not become a barrier to meeting patients’ needs. But he added that there needed to be much more effective agreement between the two administrations about who pays for which treatments.
The committee said it expected the government to announce publication of a draft protocol or give an explanation for the delay in responding to the report. It warned that a lack of a permanent protocol could adversely affect patients.
