Written question WQ83534
- Asked by
- Andrew RT DaviesConservative
- To be answered by
- Minister for Health and Social Services
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 7 days
Question
What assessment has the Minister made of the additional resources required to tackle the backlog of heart disease diagnoses and treatment in South Wales Central?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services
We held a cardiac summit with health boards in June 2021 to discuss the impact COVID-19 had on cardiac services and identify a number of priority actions.
During the peak of the pandemic there was a reduction of new referrals into cardiac services as fewer people came forward to see their GP. In addition there have been reduced outpatient appointments due to infection control measures and emergency admissions have also fallen. Referrals, demand and activity have all started to increase.
The Wales Cardiac Network is working with health boards to embed new ways of working, such as virtual consultations, self-management and triaging referrals to help address the backlog whilst recognising infection prevention controls and pre-procedure isolation are going to limit the system’s ability to recover pre-pandemic waiting list volumes and waiting times in the coming year.
Each health board has also been asked to consider how they can deliver both the longer-term aspirations set out in the Heart Conditions Quality Statement as well as the more immediate priorities/actions to help address the backlog created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health and Social Care in Wales COVID 19: Looking Forward, which sets out the pillars on which to build a whole system for recovery, was published on 22 March 2021, supported by £100m additional funding: https://gov.wales/health-and-care-services-pandemic-recovery-plan-published
This funding was allocated to health boards and trusts in Wales.
Further funding of £140m (£100m revenue, £40m capital) was announced in August 2021: https://gov.wales/ps551m-extra-covid-funding-health-and-social-services This has been allocated to health boards and trusts in Wales to address the backlog that has built up and help with the recovery from COVID. It has been used to increase capacity locally, insourcing and outsourcing to alternative providers.
More recently, we have identified £170m of recurrent revenue funding to support the next steps of implementing plans to support planned care.