Response to Welsh Affairs Committee report on cross-border health
Government response to the Welsh Affairs Committee report 'Cross-border health arrangements between England and Wales'.
Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales
Documents
Details
This is the Department of Health’s (DH’s) response to the report Cross-border health arrangements between England and Wales, which was published by the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee in March 2015.
The response makes clear that DH and the Welsh government agree with the report’s main message: that the English and Welsh national health services should work together for the benefit of patients who need to access services on both sides of the border.
The response also:
- sets out plans for NHS England to continue working with the NHS in Wales to refresh the informal forum that has previously brought together NHS bodies from both sides of the border
- explains that difficulties in recruiting GPs in Wales are being addressed by the Welsh government in the first instance (rather than by taking up the committee’s suggestion for a UK-wide performers list for GPs
- restates the UK government policy to give people resident in England secondary care that has been commissioned in England and promises a later update