BETSI Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) will not be given extra funding if it fails to stick to its budget for 2015/16, health minister Mark Drakeford has warned.

Addressing the National Assembly’s Health and Social Care Committee, Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government was expecting both Hywel Dda and Betsi Cadwaladr health boards to overspend on their budgets, but said he was not prepared to provide additional funding to prop them up.

The North Wales health board warned recently that it is estimating an overspend of approximately £20m by the end of the financial year, but Mr Drakeford said that funding gap would not be plugged by additional Welsh Government funding.

The minister stated he would not gift the organisations additional money to make them look better.

Mr Drakeford added that Welsh Government officials were working with both Hywel Dda and Betsi Cadwaladr to ensure that the two health boards matched other boards which are expected to stay within their budgets.

He said: “We continue to have issues we explore with them in order to get them into the same position.”

Speaking of BCUHB’s financial woes, Mr Drakeford said that although money will be made available for the health board to strengthen mental health services across North Wales, there will not be an open chequebook for the ailing service provider.

“I am not willing to sustain a fiction that the health board is living within its means,” he said,

“If costs occur that I believe a better run organisation would have managed differently then I will not artificially give those organisations additional money to look like they’ve lived within their means when they have not.”

In response Russell Favager, director of finance at BCUHB said: “The health board is forecasting that it will incur a deficit of £19.7m for the 2015/16 financial year as a whole, which represents 1.5% of our budget.

“While clearly disappointing, this represents the significant operational challenges affecting the health board, including those unique circumstances which have resulted in the health board being placed in special measures.

“The appointment of a permanent chief executive, along with developing a medium term strategy for safe and sustainable clinical services will be critical to enable the health board to balance over future years.”