The Welsh secretary had accepted all 29 recommendations made by a ministerial advisory group to improve healthcare services. 

Welsh health secretary Jeremy Miles has accepted the 29 recommendations made by the ministerial advisory group on NHS Performance and Productivity, which was set up in October. 

The review, led by David Sloman, focused on planned care, diagnostics, cancer performance and urgent and emergency care and considered ways to improve productivity and performance, including digital and data and improving regional working.

“The message in the report is very clear: we have a significant challenge in performance and in productivity. The service is not performing at the levels that we or the public need and expect it to,” said Miles. 

He talked about a “step change” in the approach needed to improve the services the public receives. 

Three recommendations

There are three immediate recommendations in the report – those to be worked on over the next three months. The first is that all health boards should develop a plan to reduce referrals to outpatients in high-volume specialities with a particular focus on unwarranted variation and ensure the adoption of new models and best practice in outpatient management.

In terms of cancer care, the report suggests that no additional cancer performance plans should be produced for the next two years, rather there should be an immediate focus on implementing a narrow but nationally mandated set of deliverables drawn from existing policy proposals. 

Finally, the Welsh government should consolidate all accountability and escalation meetings with health boards and trusts into individual monthly performance and productivity meetings, with a focus on delivery against key areas of both performance and productivity.

The government’s response to all the recommendations is positive and it broadly accepts all points raised. 

It called outpatient transformation an “integral aspect” of its planned care programme and is included as a “core element of the optimising planned care approach”. It said that it accepted “the principle” of the recommendation on cancer performance plans and said that the interventions described are underway by the NHS Executive. And it said that it recognised the need “to streamline and simplify existing accountability and delivery arrangements”.