00:00In September, the Welsh Secretary announced plans for Welsh patients to receive treatment
00:11across England in an effort to drive down waiting lists in Wales, which are now the
00:15highest on record. Those plans were seemingly then walked back by Welsh Government Ministers.
00:22Now in Paris, the health board has been forced into a position by the Welsh Government where
00:27it could force Welsh patients to wait longer than English patients when being treated at
00:31the same hospital. This is in direct contradiction to what the Department has previously outlined.
00:37So will this Government allow Welsh patients to receive treatment in England to drive down
00:42waiting lists or not? And if so, when can we expect to see any movement on this issue?
00:48Well, I think, David, look, the point is that we want to work very closely with Welsh Government
00:54and initially it is very much about looking at best practice on both sides of the border
00:59and what are the lessons that we can learn. But in practical terms on the ground, he will know
01:03that there are already agreements in existence whereby, because of the geography of a place,
01:10it's more appropriate for patients to go to one side or the other side to AGP and where
01:15there are specialist provisions that, again, cross-border working has been common. As he
01:23quite rightly points out, there is absolutely the case for exploring this further and for ensuring
01:28that there are no discrepancies, as he describes, between what can be accessed on one side of the
01:36border and the other side of the border by patients who are attending the same GP surgery.
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