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Health

Health Minister announces pay rise for NHS Wales staff, but Conservatives unimpressed

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THE HEALTH MINISTER Eluned Morgan has accepted the recommendations of NHS pay review bodies and is today announcing a pay rise for NHS staff in Wales.

The recommendation of the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB), for all NHS staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions – including nurses, cleaners, porters, healthcare support workers and healthcare professionals, is for a £1,400 pay rise on most pay grades.

But the Welsh Conservatives are not impressed.

Speaking on Friday, Welsh Conservative Shadow Finance Minister Peter Fox MS told this newspaper: “It’s taken the Labour Government till the end of the week to make up their minds on what to do – keeping our NHS workers in limbo, whilst Labour pick political fights with the UK Government.

“Whilst I welcome that NHS pay is being increased in line with the recommendations from the independent panel, the Labour Government has been guaranteed an additional £2.5 billion a year in their budgets.

“It’s a shame that the Welsh Government are choosing the wrong priorities such as wasting money on buying up farms, more politicians or stifling the Welsh economy with their road building freeze, instead of supporting our Welsh NHS.”

But the Health Minister said the Welsh Government will implement this recommendation on top of the Real Living Wage top-up previously announced, which came into effect in April.

For the lowest paid staff (bands 1 to 4), which make up nearly half of the Agenda for Change workforce, this will on average equate to a 7.5% pay rise on pay grades.

The starting salary for the lowest paid roles in band 1 and the bottom of band 2 in NHS Wales will now be £20,758, this equates to a pay rise of 10.8% this financial year for this band and would make Wales the highest paying UK nation for the lowest pay bands in the NHS.

For staff at the top of band 6 and in band 7, the £1,400 payment will be enhanced to be equivalent to a 4% pay rise.

Following a series of meetings with trade unions and representative bodies this week, the Welsh Government has committed to continue to explore a range of other issues raised as part of those discussions.

The Health Minister has also agreed the recommendations of the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (DDRB) to increase pay by 4.5% for junior doctors, consultants, GPs and dentists employed directly by the health boards.

Health Minister Eluned Morgan told The Herald: “We are committed to working in social partnership and will continue to use our social partnership structures and bring together trade unions, employers and government to deliver the best possible outcomes for our NHS staff. I want to thank trade unions and representative bodies for taking the time to meet me this week and for the constructive discussions we have had.

“Our NHS staff have worked incredibly hard throughout the pandemic to keep us all safe and they continue to provide an incredible service in the face of intense pressures.

“I hope this pay award goes some way to recognise their hard work but without additional funding from the UK Government, there are inevitably limits to how far we can go in Wales. We continue to press them to pass on the full funding necessary for fair pay rises for public sector workers.

“We are all facing a cost-of-living crisis. We have structured this pay award so the lowest paid staff in the NHS would see the biggest uplift in their pay, equivalent to a 10.8% pay rise, making the NHS in Wales the highest-paying UK nation for staff in the lowest pay bands.”

Despite not being within the DDRB’s remit, specialty and specialist doctors on the 2021 contract will receive a one-off £1,400 payment in recognition of the unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. Specialty doctors on the 2008 contract will receive a 4.5% pay increase, but those on the top pay grade in the 2008 contract will receive a one-off payment equivalent to 4.5%.

The recommended 4.5% pay uplift in pay for contracted GPs and dentists is subject to overall contract changes by the General Medical and General Dental Services and negotiations are ongoing.

The Health Minister has made clear that staff working within general practice, dental teams and community pharmacies across Wales should receive a fair, proportionate and equitable pay uplift.

Health

Welsh Government set to change key ambulance target

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A KEY target for ambulances to respond to the most urgent 999 calls within eight minutes, which has not been met in five years, will be ditched following a review.

Jeremy Miles, Wales’ health secretary, announced a move away from the time-based target of responding to 65% of life-threatening “red” calls within eight minutes from July 1.

The Welsh Government target was last met in July 2020, with 48% of 6,073 red calls receiving an emergency response in eight minutes in January this year.

Mr Miles said a clinician-led review found the eight-minute target, which has been the standard since the 1970s, is no longer appropriate nor fit for purpose.

In a statement to the Senedd on March 11, he explained the ambulance service will trial changes over the next year which will focus on outcomes rather than response times.

A purple category – for cardiac and respiratory arrest – will be added, with the red category for major trauma, bleeding and cases where a person’s condition could rapidly deteriorate.

Mr Miles said of the current eight-minute target: “There is no evidence it helps drive better outcomes. It does not support effective clinical prioritisation.”

Health secretary Jeremy Miles
Health secretary Jeremy Miles

He added: “This means that precious ambulance resources are being dispatched to people who are less seriously ill and may not require emergency treatment or onward hospital care.

“And we measure success purely through the lens of response time in these examples. So, if an ambulance arrives in eight minutes and one second and the person survives – that would be regarded as a failure because the response time target was missed.

“But, perversely, if the ambulance arrived within eight minutes and the person unfortunately died – that would be regarded as meeting the target.”

Mr Miles said survival rates in Wales after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are less than 5%, compared with 9% in Scotland, 10% in England and far higher elsewhere in the world.

“This is not acceptable…,” he told the Senedd. “We must aspire to do better and to match survival rates in European countries and some US cities.”

The health secretary stated both the purple and red categories will be subject to time-based targets, with an average expected response time of six to eight minutes.

He detailed a focus on early CPR and defibrillation before announcing a group to review ambulance patient handovers, with around 27,000 hours lost due to delays in January.

Mr Miles told Senedd Members: “We must have a significant improvement in ambulance handover performance to ensure ambulances are available to respond to 999 calls in the community and not stuck outside hospitals for hours on end.”

Before the pandemic the median response time for red calls was four minutes and 30 seconds but at the beginning of this year the average was eight minutes and 17 seconds.

Most calls are “amber”, for which there is no corresponding measure, but a further review will assess whether to introduce targets for the category which includes stroke symptoms.

The Senedd’s health committee called for a review of the red target in a report published in August after taking evidence from the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.

Russell George, the Tory chair of the committee, welcomed the statement, adding: “But, of course, having targets in place is important – they’re there to ensure accountability.”

Plaid Cymru’s Mabon ap Gwynfor also backed the change in direction, describing the red response time target as “largely ornamental” over the past half a decade.

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Health

Planned west Wales ‘super hospital’ on hold for a decade

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A CALL for an urgent meeting between Pembrokeshire’s leader and the local health board has been made after the board recently identified nine ‘fragile’ areas of service.

Late last year, Hywel Dda University Health Board stated a planned new west Wales hospital, based at either Whitland or St Clears, would not be up-and-running for at least a decade.

That scheme would see both Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest and Glangwili Hospital, Carmarthen being ‘repurposed’, with community hubs developed.

In the meantime, the board heard services across the UK have consolidated and standards increased and Hywel Dda risks falling significantly behind other areas with consequences for patient care and staff recruitment, with work to support nine ‘fragile’ services in the interim of a new hospital already begun.

The board’s executive director of strategy and planning, Lee Davies said at the time: “In the absence of a new hospital in the south of our area to address challenges, we need to consider other options to bring together some of our services.

“We anticipate the emerging model, informed by work on the Clinical Services Plan, will seek to build on the strengths of each of the hospital sites in a way that builds complementary areas of expertise.”

At the March 6 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, a submitted question by Cllr Alistair Cameron asked: “On November 28, 2024, Hywel Dda UHB announced that, since financial support is not secured, delivery of a new hospital (to be located in either St Clears or Whitland) is likely to be at least 10 years from now.

“In the same statement the health board stated that it risks falling significantly behind other areas [of the UK] with consequences for patient care and staff recruitment and that it has identified nine fragile services: Critical Care, Emergency General Surgery, Stroke, Endoscopy, Radiology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics and Urology.

“Could the Leader of Council seek an urgent meeting between the council and the chief executive of Hywel Dda UHB so that he can explain his strategy for safeguarding these nine fragile services which are vital to Pembrokeshire residents and what action has been taken so far?”

Responding, Leader Cllr Jon Harvey said: “I share your concern about health service provision; contact has been made with the health board with regard to a meeting, a response is awaited,” adding that a seminar for councillors on the issue was also due to be held.

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Health

GPs to play key role in NHS transformation

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GPs in Wales will have a vital role in tackling NHS waiting lists and improving patient care, Health Secretary Jeremy Miles will tell the Welsh Local Medical Committees Conference on Saturday (Mar 8).

He will say the coming year must focus on transforming healthcare delivery to ensure more treatment is available closer to home. As part of this shift, GPs will take a more active role in managing waiting lists and expanding diagnostic testing in communities to ease hospital pressures.

Health Secretary: Jeremy Miles

A new initiative aimed at improving continuity of care will begin by identifying the most vulnerable patients who would benefit from seeing the same health professional at each appointment. The approach is expected to improve outcomes for people with chronic conditions and support efforts to keep more patients well at home.

With more diagnostic and treatment services moving out of hospitals and into local settings, Miles will acknowledge that funding must follow. Health boards will be required to increase and declare primary care spending to support the shift.

GP RESPONSE

While the Welsh Government is keen to shift more responsibilities to primary care, GPs have expressed concerns about workload distribution and financial support.

In January, the BMA’s Welsh GP committee accepted a revised General Medical Services (GMS) contract, which included an additional £23 million in stabilisation payments, bringing total additional investment for 2024/25 to £52.1 million. The contract ensures fair pay for practice staff, including a 6% uplift for GP partners and salaried GPs.

Dr. Gareth Oelmann, chair of the BMA’s Welsh GP committee, said: “This settlement does not resolve every issue, but it provides a solid foundation for future negotiations.”

GPs in Wales are also set to vote on a proposal requiring partners to provide a minimum number of clinical sessions, aimed at ensuring consistent patient care across practices.

Health Secretary Jeremy Miles said: “It is vital we work together to address the pressures in our NHS by improving access to care and patient flow through the system.

“The role of GPs is fundamental to bringing the system back into balance. This is not about general medical services taking on more and more but about commissioning services in a way that makes primary care sustainable.

“GPs are at the heart of their communities. I want to work with them to develop a system that values their expertise, provides them with the right tools, and ensures patients receive the care they need closer to home.”

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