Senedd gives Powys health £3.4m to cut waiting lists

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) has received a £3.4 million funding boost from the Welsh Government, good news for those waiting for operations at Gobowen.

This money is set to be used to pay English health providers to treat patients from Powys.

PTHB board members were told of the funding boost at a meeting yesterday (Wednesday), while looking at an update report on the budget performance as it stood at the end of August.

Acting Director of Finance, Hywel Pullen, explained that the health board was £20.376 million overspent at the end of August, which is £1.77 million more than the board had budgeted for.

This means that their total costs for 2026/2027 by August 31 were £219.615 million, while their income was £199.239 million, on a total budget worth £468 million.

This financial year’s annual plan aims to deliver £22.889 million worth of savings, with the aim of ending the year with a £44.652 million deficit.

Mr Pullen said: “This is an improvement from the position at the end of July where we moved by £500,000 back towards our profile.”

He explained that this is because the number of patients in placements outside Powys for acute mental health care had dropped.

Mr Pullen said: “We also have good news towards the end of the month; we have been successful in bidding to the Welsh Government for additional monies to use to purchase healthcare with our English providers.”

This will be spent on bringing down the waiting list for treatment with the Agnes Jones Roger Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, and the Wye Valley Trust in Hereford.

Mr Pullen said: “This will allow us to work with those providers to ensure patients are treated more quickly than they otherwise would be, and those providers have already started to do that for us.”

Independent member, Steve Elliot, said: “It is promising to hear a drop in the operational deficit, but we are still nearly £1.8 million adrift from our plan, which is not a position we want to be in.

“It’s important that as well as achieving our in-year financial plan, we are making progress towards financial sustainability. What actions are being taken to address the current shortfall on the recurrent savings?”

Mr Pullen answered: “The key actions that will allow us to achieve our plan relate to the delivery of our savings schemes.”

He explained that a “full programme of £23 million had been identified” and a number of these schemes are “weighted to the latter half of the year.”

“Particularly from October onwards, so to achieve our plan our focus will be on the delivery of those savings,” said Mr Pullen.

He believed that the balance sheet would start to show underspends as the savings flow through.

Mr Pullen said: “I’m pleased to say that £19 million worth of savings were viewed as recurrent.”

Mr Elliot said: “It’s good to hear of the progress being made on recurrent savings.”

The board went on to approve the report.