A Welsh patient’s two-year wait was slashed to seven months after moving to England.

The treatment by Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) to give their routine surgery patients a two-year wait has been branded “indefensible” by Montgomeryshire MS Russell George.

It was announced last summer that the health board would request treatment in English hospitals to be artificially slowed to match Powys’ wait times, after it came to light that PTHB couldn’t afford the speed of treatments in hospitals across the border.

Russell George, who has repeatedly requested answers from the health board and Welsh government on behalf of his constituents, stated that this case proves Powys patients are “second-class citizens” in the Welsh NHS system: “Correspondence I have received from the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt (RJAH) Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [in Gobowen, England] makes clear that this disparity is real.

“This is not the fault of the hospital.

“It is the result of the constraints placed upon it by the Welsh Government.

“If I am re-elected, this will be my top priority and a clear red line in any negotiations with a minority Government.

“I will not support any administration that fails to deliver fair funding for Powys, and I will not accept a system where my constituents are treated as second-class citizens.”

In a previous comment to the Cambrian News, PTHB suggested it was English hospital delays that were to blame.

The Welsh patient, Mr Edwards (pseudonym), was referred for orthopaedic surgery in late October last year whilst he was living in Wales.

Powys has no general hospital, so many patients' treatment is done in other counties or across the border in English hospitals.

He was given a 104-week wait for treatment at Gobowen as a priority four (routine treatment) because, as a RJAH spokesperson said, “decisions about treatment pathway duration are made by PTHB based on their commissioning scope and available resources”.

However, Mr Edwards then moved to England, meaning his treatment was now “under English rules,” which dropped his wait to 52 weeks.

His surgery was then booked for late May this year, meaning his wait was cut from two years to seven months, with the RJAH spokesperson stating this was still “longer than we would like and we apologise for any delay”.

In response, a PTHB spokesperson said: "From the beginning of July 2025, we have been working with the hospitals in England so that wherever you live in Powys, you will receive planned care treatments (inpatients and daycases) and outpatient appointments based on the NHS Wales waiting time measures.

"This change does not include:

"This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and it reflects the way we are funded.

“We must take action to live within our means, or we will build up bigger financial difficulties for the future."