The UK and Welsh governments will collaborate on health care for the first time in an effort to drive down waiting lists on both sides of the border, Labour is set to announce.
Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens is expected to reveal a new partnership intended to exchange best practices to address the challenges facing the NHS in England and Wales at the Labour Party conference on Monday.
The announcement comes after Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC on Thursday that the NHS in Wales “desperately” needs reform, with waiting lists at a record high.
Eluned Morgan, the new First Minister, insisted that tackling waiting lists was one of her key priorities in the Senedd last week.
Latest figures for the NHS in Wales show 615,300 patients on waiting lists and 23,418 waiting more than two years for treatment.
While healthcare is devolved in Wales, Baroness Morgan will say there is “no monopoly on good ideas” and the governments can learn from each other.
She and Ms Stevens will set out how new ways of working together will help deliver the Labour Government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future.
The UK Government will draw inspiration from the Welsh Labour Government on improved access to dentistry, which they say has unlocked 400,000 appointments in the last two years.
UK Labour has committed to deliver 700,000 new dental appointments in England.
Meanwhile, Wales will benefit from best practice shared by NHS England, with the new Westminster government pledging to roll out new, more productive ways of working to deliver 40,000 extra appointments a week.
There will also be more opportunities to explore more cross-border collaboration, including developing mutual aid partnerships, enabling NHS trusts to support each other as capacity allows.
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.
“This is only the first step in a bold new partnership between UK and Welsh Labour governments that will help deliver better care for patients and drive down waiting lists.”
The proposal for closer working between NHS bodies is not new, with the former Conservative health minister Steve Barclay inviting Welsh and Scottish governments to discuss ways of cutting waiting lists across the UK.
He said in 2023 he was open to Scottish and Welsh patients being treated in England.
Baroness Morgan said: “People are rightly proud of the NHS, which was created here in Wales.
“They want to see the 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.”
Reacting to the news, Sam Rowlands MS, the Welsh Conservative shadow health minister said: “This is long overdue, but welcome news.
“The Labour Welsh Government rejected this offer from the UK Conservative government for party political reasons, putting patients at risk.
“Labour must also accept some responsibility and put their full focus back onto the NHS and deliver more doctors and nurses, instead of politicians in the Senedd.”
Plaid Cymru’s health spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor MS said the NHS in Wales needed “radical action” to tackle deep-rooted issues of staff retention, investment and modernisation, as well as fairer funding from Westminster.
He said: “The reality is that Wales’s NHS has been underfunded and mismanaged by successive Welsh Labour governments for over two decades, leading to some of the longest waiting lists in the UK – and needs more than cosmetic collaboration with Westminster.
“While the UK and Welsh Labour governments tout this new partnership as a step forward for the NHS, it lacks clarity on how this will work in practice and doesn’t appear to offer the radical action required to address the underlying crisis faced by the Welsh NHS.
“We must also ensure that any future co-operation does not dilute Welsh health governance.”
