Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, has labelled today’s claim that ‘all health boards have broken even’ as ‘utter fiction’.
In a statement on NHS finances, the Health Minister claims that ‘all NHS organisations have met their statutory financial target to break-even in 2012-13’.
He goes on to say: ‘Through careful financial management of the total health and social services budget, the NHS was able to generate a small surplus of £61k.’
Last December an additional 82 million pounds was given to the NHS by the former Health Minister – via a 50 million pounds contingency fund and ‘underspend’ due to ‘project slippage’ in capital expenditure.
Mr George said:
"To suggest that the Welsh NHS broke even without a need for additional financial support is complete and utter fiction.
"The Welsh NHS received an 82 million pounds bailout last December to prevent massive overspends at the end of the financial year and, even with this cash, some health boards - such as Powys – had to delay payments and even cancel planned operations to make ends meet, causing spiralling waiting lists and inconvenience for patients.
"The financial gap in the current year is so large that the Welsh Government is now changing the law to avoid embarrassing overspends next year.
"It's time for this Welsh Government to look again at its priorities and reverse its record-breaking cuts to our precious NHS."