Back in July 2006 Oswestry Hospital threatened to stop accepting Welsh patients because Powys Local Health Board wasn't paying its bills. An agreement was reached to prevent it happening at Oswestry but now North Bristol is having the same problem only this time the situation hasn't been resolved amicably and Welsh patients are no longer being admitted to their hospitals.The Western Mail (a Welsh newspaper) suggests that the "row over NHS access is frankly ridiculous" and that North Bristol should continue to treat Welsh patients that they're not being paid to treat despite having a statutory obligation to ensure that they remain financially viable. The example of Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust continuing to treat Welsh patients despite an annual cost of £2m to do so is cited as an example: "If it can be made to work in Mid Wales and Telford and Shrewsbury, North Bristol NHS Trust needs to provide a pretty compelling case as to why it can’t work there".
What happened in Shropshire clearly wasn't a one-off but the question now has to be how many times this has happened in the past and whether this is going to keep on happening in the future. The English taxpayer already subsidises the superior Welsh health service, English hospitals treat Welsh patients at a reduced cost to their Local Health Board and now it looks like English hospitals are treating Welsh patients for free because Welsh Local Health Boards aren't paying their bills.
I have phoned the reporter who wrote this story and explained that it's not fair that English NHS Trusts should be expected to make concessions when the English already subsidise the Welsh NHS and when English hospitals are providing services to Welsh patients at reduced prices. She said she hadn't thought about it in that way and agreed that it wasn't fair and that she would do some more investigation into cross-border health services.
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