Groundbreaking cross-border deal as Labour seek to end NHS waiting list crisis

Exclusive: Labour’s new health secretary Wes Streeting has said that the numbers waiting for treatment need to be ‘millions lower’ by 2029

A groundbreaking cross-border deal has been struck to help ease the NHS waiting list crisis.

The UK and Welsh governments are to collaborate to ensure access to everything from operations to dentists.

The Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens hit out at what she called “cheap political point scoring” by the previous Conservative government, which had made such collaboration “impossible”.

In their 14 years in power the Tories made much of the failures of the NHS in what successive prime ministers referred to as “Labour-run Wales”.

How to tackle NHS waiting lists is one of the most serious problems the new government faces.

Millions are on NHS waiting lists (PA)

More than seven million people are currently waiting for treatment and the new health secretary Wes Streeting has said that waiting lists need to be “millions lower” in the next five years.

One of the benefits of the new deal will be that people will be able to cross the border for healthcare where specialists are needed and where capacity allows, a change from the hard border on health which has existed since devolution.

The deal has been struck to ensure that cooperation can be improved while protecting devolution at the same time.

Under the plan the UK Government will look at how Cardiff unlocked 400,000 appointments in the last two years.

Ministers have pledged to deliver 700,000 new dental appointments in England.

They will also look at developing “mutual aid” partnerships, which would allow NHS Trusts on either side of the border to support each other, as capacity allows.

Welsh secretary Jo Stevens (UK Parliament/PA)

Ms Stevens said: “Healthcare is one of the biggest shared challenges our two governments face and we are acting quickly to tackle it.

“These practical, common-sense steps could deliver real change on the ground for patients and clinicians. Until now, cheap political point scoring by the previous UK Conservative government made it impossible.”

She added that the move was “only the first step in a bold new partnership” between the two governments to help drive down waiting lists and give patients better care.

Eluned Morgan, first minister of Wales, said the public wanted to see governments in Wales and the UK working together “to ensure they have better access to care – whether that’s to an NHS dentist or to a planned operation.

“We don’t have a monopoly on good ideas and there’s lots we can learn from our closest neighbours and we have lots we can share with our colleagues in NHS England, where we have already made changes to our NHS.

“We are ready to harness the power of two Labour governments, with the same values and the same belief in our great National Health Service, working together to improve services for people on both sides of the border.”