Report finds Welsh patients treated as 2nd class citizens

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 10th Jul 2008

The Welsh Affairs committee has today published its interim report on the 'Provision of Cross Border Health Services for Wales' finding that borderland Welsh citizens do not receive the same quality of access to treatment as their English counterparts.

The Report recommends that patient's needs and not funding must be at the centre of Welsh health provision. Welsh patients must have access to quality health services as close to their home as possible which is currently not happening for Welsh patients in the borderland, who are either being refused treatment at the nearest English facilities or are having to wait much longer than their English equivalents.

The report calls for a permanent protocol on commissioning and funding cross-border Health Services and clarity for cross-border performance targets.

Kirsty said:" The Daffodil curtain put up by the One Wales Government is a barrier to collaboration between Westminster and Cardiff and it is Welsh borderland patients who are loosing out.

"There are two major issues that must be addressed. The first is Welsh patients being refused treatment in England and instead having to travel further and wait longer to have treatment in Wales.

"The second is that Welsh patients, who in some cases have been receiving specialist treatment for years at English hospitals, are suddenly being told that they will now have to receive this treatment in Wales. In many cases due to the size of our country and the size of our health service this specialist treatment is simply not available in Wales.

"My constituents and I have long bemoaned the problems facing Powys patients and campaigned for improved treatment for Welsh borderland residents but the Plaid-Labour Government has continued to refute that there isn't a problem, insisting that Welsh patients should without exception be treated within the nation.

"I hope that this report, which raises so many concerns about the poor deal faced by Welsh borderland patients, will finally mean that WAG puts patient's needs at the heart of their Health provision and not a misguided sense of Nationalism which is damaging the nation from within."