“We will work relentlessly to get this healthcare service, with doctors leading, back into good working order for the patients it was designed to treat”
Welsh Council chair, Dr Iona Collins, addresses delegates at the annual representative meeting (full speech can be watched here.)
Bore da, gyfeillion a chydweithwyr. Good morning, friends and colleagues.
This is my final report as Chair of BMA Cymru Wales Council, and I take this final opportunity to speak publicly, by highlighting the disproportionate plight of Welsh healthcare in the context of an inadequate block funding grant, how hospitals remain rammed with gridlocked patient flow, and how general practice continues to campaign for improved resources.
The baseline problem for Wales is systemic underfunding.
The Barnett formula block grant fails to deliver a fair or equitable budget for Wales to run its public services.
Even though healthcare takes over half of our country's entire fiscal allocation, the system remains profoundly and chronically underfunded.
A new administration in Cardiff cannot magic away decades of structural neglect without a fundamental overhaul of how Wales is funded.
Under these conditions, official metrics have become a smoke screen.
Key performance indicators— specifically the headline Referral to Treatment times, or RTT— fail to reflect the true depth of the Welsh healthcare crisis, by re-defining RTT for Wales and shifting the goalposts, to the detriment of the Welsh population.
These spreadsheets fail to accurately reflect the grim reality on the shop floor.
Last year, I highlighted that general practice funding had declined to 6.1% of the total NHS Wales budget.
The Save Our Surgeries campaign highlights this erosion from 8.7% back in 2005. Over the past year, BMA Cymru Wales has worked to stabilise the situation.
We secured a £41.9 million investment for 2025/26 and also a 5.8% recurring uplift for the current financial year, ahead of the usual GMS contract negotiations.
This progress is significant, however, the data remains clear.
Despite these gains, general practice now receives only 6% of the NHS budget while delivering approximately 90% of patient care.
Proper investment in general practice enables earlier intervention, closer to home, lowering the likelihood of needing complex and costly hospital care.
Welsh Government has committed to increasing the primary care spend by 0.5% annually from next year.
This is a positive step forward, but the pace of change must match the increasing pressure.
Because saving our surgeries is about delivering better outcomes for patients and better value for the entire health system.
Meanwhile, in our hospitals, corridor care is normalised.
Wales is actively lagging behind England in failing to eradicate this dangerous practice from our hospitals.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
In England, Barnet Hospital has successfully tackled its corridor care crisis.
This hospital has made sure that its patients receive care in appropriate, dignified clinical locations.
If they can do it, so can we.
Yesterday, we coordinated a joint letter with other healthcare stakeholders to the Cabinet Minister for Health to highlight the requirement of a formal definition for corridor care, along with transparent national data reporting on the true scale of corridor care in Wales.
Looking ahead, in Wales, we start a new chapter with our new government and we are optimistic that our shared healthcare commitments will closely align, as reflected by our similar healthcare manifestos.
We are speaking the same language on public health, sustainability, and structural reform — and, while literally speaking the same language of our nation, I continue as follows:
Rydym wedi dangos arweiniad byd-eang drwy gyfreithloni Asesiadau Effaith ar Iechyd yng Nghymru, sy’n gorfodi cyrff cyhoeddus i ystyried iechyd cyn gwneud penderfyniadau strategol.
Our work in the last year has proven that contract reform is achieved when we coordinate together.
We have a new and historic contract for resident doctors, which significantly improves upon current working conditions.
This year, the BMA has helped to stop the rot and we will continue to work relentlessly to get this healthcare service, with doctors leading, back into good working order for the patients it was designed to treat.
I now step down. It has been an honour to serve you.
Diolch o galon. Thank you.
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