Perverse HCW Decision has Wider Implications

2.01.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 4th Oct 2007

'Mrs. T' complained to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales that Health Commission Wales (HCW) has acted unreasonably in not granting a PET scan on a mass located close to her lungs as recommended by her consultant despite the significant costs of a thoracotomy (the alternative). The Ombudsman concluded that HCW failed to take account of obviously relevant factors and in view of the evidence the decision was perverse.

Jenny Randerson, Welsh Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson said "The decision was driven by a desire to protect the HCW budget and not Welsh Assembly spending as a whole, this is the kind of perverse decision that has been repeated across the Welsh NHS, particularly where social services costs are not balanced against drugs treatment costs."

The Ombudsman also recommended that the Welsh Assembly Government should urgently review the framework within which HCW operates.

"When Edwina Hart announced her decision last week to review HCW I specifically asked her to take the issue of 'who funds what' into account because I was concerned about the existence of perverse incentives. This report strongly underlines this concern.

"An example is the case of brachytherapy, where money was available via LHBs for radiotherapy, but not via HCW for brachytherapy. Cost is always a factor in decisions but should be based on cost for Wales not HCW."

Ends/diwedd