CONCERNS have been raised after it emerged that Hywel Dda University Health Board has been placed under a higher level of Welsh Government intervention for failing to produce "balanced and approvable" plans on how to deliver healthcare.

The intervention by the Welsh Government into Hywel Dda health board, which covers Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, will mean the government will oversee planning and finance and monitoring for quality and performance.

Health Minister Eluned Morgan said in a statement: "Hywel Dda UHB has been escalated to targeted intervention from enhanced monitoring for finance and planning because it has been unable to submit a balanced and approvable integrated medium term plan, or a finalised annual plan and a growing financial deficit is being reported.

“On quality and performance, there are concerns around urgent and emergency care, including ambulance handover, cancer and performance against part 1a of the child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) measure."

Cardiff and Vale UHB has also been escalated to enhanced monitoring from routine arrangements because it was unable to submit a balanced and approvable three-year integrated medium term plan.

Reacting to the announcement, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister Russell George, MS for Montgomeryshire, said: “It is worrying to see two more health boards require increased oversight and intervention – yet this is just another problem in the Labour-run health service and shouldn’t come as a surprise.

“In Wales, there are over 60,000 people waiting over two years for NHS treatment – when such waits have virtually been eliminated in England and Scotland – and we also have significantly worse A&E waiting times than other parts of the UK.

“Given how much of the NHS is no longer in routine arrangements, it makes you think whether these interventions will actually address these serious waits – we need greater confidence in the system that neither patients nor staff currently have.

“Labour needs to get a grip on the NHS and stop breaking all the wrong records.”

Commenting Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said: “This announcement is yet the latest in a series of negative announcements related to Labour’s running of the Welsh NHS.

“Figures last month show us that 100,000 extra people joined an NHS Wales waiting list during the last year. With almost 750,000 on patient pathways, well over one-fifth of the Welsh population are now on a waiting list.

“Meanwhile 60,557 people have waited over two years for treatment compared to only 2,885 in England.

“It is therefore concerning that two more health boards appear to be struggling to produce balanced and approvable plans to deliver treatment in their areas. We will now be waiting to see what happens with Betsi Cadwaladr and Cwm Taf Morgannwg later this month.”