Health Foundation response to Welsh Government’s long-term plan for the future of health and social care in Wales

Tim Gardner, Senior Policy Fellow, commented:

'We welcome the Welsh government’s plan to bring health and social care services closer together and its focus on health, wellbeing and prevention.

‘Delivering more care in the community should help to reduce unnecessary time in hospital but this can only happen if local services are adequately funded, including investment in the health and social care workforce.

‘Structural and policy changes alone are not enough to lead directly to more joined-up and coordinated care for patients. Those on the front line need to be given support and space to come together to discover and deliver change effectively, supported by adequate capacity and capability building.

‘Dedicated transformation funding to support this plan will help to enable the Welsh NHS to deliver change at the scale and pace needed. But this can’t be a one off - for health and social care services to be sustainable in the future there needs to be a long-term funding plan that will meet the needs of future generations in Wales.’