Jeremy Miles MS, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I have written to the chairs and chief executives of all NHS organisations setting out my priorities to improve care, services and performance over the course of this year A healthier Wales: long term plan for health and social care | GOV.WALES.
Together, the actions in these priority areas will help to change the way the NHS is run –cementing the recovery from the pandemic, ensuring better and faster access to care for all and ensuring the health service is ready for the challenges of the future.
Our NHS is at a turning point – the next 12 months are crucial for the longer-term sustainability of our services. We must act now. This means doing more to prevent ill health; providing more care and services closer to home, in local communities; cutting waiting times and the number of people who experience delayed hospital discharges. We must focus on the NHS’ digital infrastructure and transformation; strengthen NHS leadership and enable more regional working, across traditional health board boundaries. These changes will need to be delivered alongside meeting our financial delivery expectations and within available resources.
These priority areas reflect the themes I set out in my speech to the NHS Wales Confederation on 7 April. They also reflect the work and recommendations of both the Ministerial Advisory Group on Accountability and the Ministerial Advisory Group on NHS Performance and Productivity.
The actions in my letter reinforce my commitment to ensuring we continue to improve the productivity and performance of our health and care system and align with the vision set out in A Healthier Wales and the expectations in the NHS Wales Planning Framework 2025-28.