£6.5 million out of hours overspend- Jenny Randerson demands answers

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 5th Oct 2006

Between 2004 and 2006, Out of Hours contracts cost Welsh local health boards over £6.5 million more than expected

Welsh Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Jenny Randerson AM has uncovered figures showing that the GP out of hours services imposed on local health boards in 2004 not only caused clinical chaos, but cost many local health boards far more than was budgeted for.

"GP out of hours services were contracted out in 2004 and these figures show that many local health boards had to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds more than they planned paying for the service. I want to know how the Welsh Assembly Government got their figures so badly wrong.

"Ceredigion local health board paid out an extra £700,000 over two years and Gwynedd paid out over £1.1 million over the same period. Powys local health board paid out over half a million over last year alone.

"Wrexham paid £361,000 in additional funding in the last year alone. That's not even taking into account the extra funding it cost the previous year.

"Between 2004 and 2006, Welsh local health boards paid out over £6.5 million in additional funding - that's on top of the money the Health Minister thought it would cost.

"When the new services were launched the clinical disasters were well documented. I know most Assembly Members received complaints from their constituents about how the service had got poorer.

"These figures show that not only was the out of hours service a clinical disaster, leaving patients hanging on the end of the phone or without access to appropriate treatment, but also a financial catastrophe. To re-launch a service so it costs more and delivers a poorer service has to go down as one of this government's biggest failures."