A REPORT from the National Audit Office (NAO) has backed up claims by an MP that overall spending on the NHS in Wales is to be cut.
David Davies called on the Welsh Government to apologise earlier this year after obtaining statistics from the House of Commons library which suggested the health service in Wales will take a 5.1 per cent cut between 2008-09 and 2014-15, while England will get a funding rise of 7.4 per cent.
The Welsh Government’s Health Minister Lesley Griffiths wrote to Monmouth MP Mr Davies saying there were to be no cuts.
But the NAO report on healthcare across the UK, released on Friday, says: “According to government spending plans, Wales is predicting the lowest increase per person over the four years to 2014-15 – remaining almost constant in cash terms and equating to an average annual fall of 2.3 per cent in real terms.
“In comparison, real terms spending is expected to fall by, on average, 0.6 per cent per year in Scotland and by 0.4 per cent per year in Northern Ireland, and to remain the same in England per year, between 2010-11 and 2014-15.”
Mr Davies said: “One of the things that leapt out for me was the NAO confirming what I have said all along and what the Assembly’s Health Minister has denied – that overall spending for the NHS in Wales is being cut in real terms.
“The NAO is entirely independent of Government and I believe this report completely refutes the claims by Labour’s Health Minister in the Assembly that NHS funding is set to rise in Wales. In England there will be no cuts at all in the NHS.”
The report also points out for six common procedures, waiting times in 2009-10 were shorter in England and Scotland than in Wales and Northern Ireland, while MRSA rates decreased by between 67 per cent in England and 38 per cent in Wales from 2007-08 to 2010-11.
Mr Davies hailed the report as being a very important and thorough comparison of the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“People don’t realise there are four separate health services as a result of devolution and no real national health service in any meaningful sense of the word,” he added.
“I am still contacted by many people who are surprised to be told that all health matters in Wales are dealt with by the Welsh Government and not Parliament.
“Aside from cross-border issues such as access to life-prolonging cancer drugs and waiting times, it has been difficult to compare the NHS in Wales with the rest of the UK.
“However, this is a very thorough and important report which goes into far more detail then I have been able to do previously.”
A full copy of the National Audit Office report on healthcare across the UK is available to download at:
http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/1213/healthcare_across_the_uk.aspx