Written question WQ92878

Health boards have a statutory responsibility to provide healthcare that meets the needs of their local populations. They do this by either directly providing healthcare or by commissioning healthcare from other service providers. People should only be able to access healthcare services elsewhere when all treatment options available locally or those commissioned by health boards have been exhausted or it is clinically appropriate to do so; it is the aim of NHS in Wales is to treat people as close to home as possible.

People who are registered with a Welsh GP but are resident in England, or people who are resident in Wales but registered with an English GP have a specific right to choose their secondary care provider. The cross-border arrangements are specific to those health boards that share a border with England.

The NHS in Wales has a national policy setting out the circumstances and process for approving out-of-area care: https://whssc.nhs.wales/commissioning/commissioned-services/commissioned-services-documents/prior-approval-policy/

In addition, the appointments process is based on reasonable offer and patient agreement to provide as much choice as possible for appointment dates and times.

Finally, there are also arrangements in place so when treatments are not routinely available, people who might get particular benefit can still access the treatment through a process called Individual Patient Funding Requests (IPFR). More information can be found at: whssc.nhs.wales/about-us/what-we-do/what-we-do-document/1-all-wales-ipfr-policy-june-2017/