Patient moves to England and waiting time cut by 17 months!
The email from The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to Russell George, the most recent Montgomeryshire Assembly Member and now candidate, highlights the disparity between English and Welsh patients receiving treatment across the border.
Powys Teaching Health Board is struggling for funds and has asked health boards across the border to use the slower Welsh waiting times for their patients receiving treatment there.
Below is the bulk of the email, with the names redacted as ‘X’, and it shows that after originally being placed on a 104-week waiting list in Wales, the patient is then given a date of May 26 after moving to England, just seven months after being added to the original waiting list.
“We have now completed our investigation into the waiting time for Mr X upcoming surgery, and I would like to share the findings with you. I would like to offer my deepest apologies for the delay in my reply to you, for Mr X wait for his surgery and for any inconvenience caused to him as a result.
My colleague in our Patient Access Team has advised me that Mr X was added to the waiting list as a priority 4 (routine) under the care of Mr X, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon on the 27/10/2025.
However, when you initially raised this concern to us, Mr X was living in Wales and was also under the care of a Welsh GP. This meant that he was to be treated as a Welsh patient under Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB), who manage surgical and outpatient activity for the Trust. Decisions about treatment pathway duration are made by PTHB based on their commissioning scope and available resources. The commissioning arrangement for PTHB are waiting times of 104 weeks for routine surgery.
I note that Mr X has since moved to England and is now under the care of an English GP, which would mean that he will now be treated under English rules. This is currently a waiting time of 52 weeks, from the date that he was added to the list.
I have also been informed that the Patient Access Team are currently trying to book English patients before they breach 52 weeks and I am very pleased to confirm that Mr X surgery has now been booked for the 26/05/2026. I would like to wish him well with this and with his future recovery….”
Mr George, who is running as an independent for the Senedd election on May 7, has been a huge critic of the current system and called it “simply indefensible”.
He said: “I have made repeated representations on behalf of constituents who are being let down by this system.
“Since last summer, many residents in Powys have faced significantly longer waiting times for treatment in English hospitals than patients living just across the border, despite there being available capacity. We are told this is because Powys Teaching Health Board must operate within a budget set by the Welsh Government.
“That situation is simply indefensible. People in Powys are being forced to wait longer and are, in effect, being treated as second-class citizens.
“I have raised this consistently in the Senedd, calling for fair and adequate funding for Powys Teaching Health Board so that patients referred to English hospitals receive the same standard of care and access as those living in England.
“Correspondence I have received from the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust makes clear that this disparity is real. This is not the fault of the hospital. it is the result of the constraints placed upon it by the Welsh Government.
“If I am re-elected, this will be my top priority and a clear red line in any negotiations with a minority Government. I will not support any administration that fails to deliver fair funding for Powys, and I will not accept a system where my constituents are treated as second-class citizens.”
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