£18m in Wales NHS redundancy payouts criticised
Welsh Conservatives have raised concerns over NHS redundancy payouts in Wales totalling almost 18 million pounds since 2012.
Figures obtained via the Freedom of Information Act show Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has spent the most on severance packages, at 6.9 million pounds over the last three financial years. That money has gone to 214 staff members who’ve left the board’s employment.
Other boards have spent between 900 thousand pounds and 3.3 million. No-one has received a severance payment at Hywel Dda.
In total, since 2012/13, at least 555 NHS Wales employees have received money upon departure.
The figures have been revealed as the health service remains in a recruitment crisis. In recent weeks two GP practices in north Wales have terminated their contracts with Betsi Cadwaladr UHB due to difficulties in recruiting staff.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, Darren Millar AM, said:
“Labour’s Welsh NHS is in the middle of a recruitment crisis and frontline staff are already under huge financial pressure, yet ministers have allowed millions to be spent on redundancies.
“At a time when resources are strained and Labour’s record-breaking budget cuts have led to overlong waiting times and downgraded hospitals, forking out 17 million on severance payments is extraordinary.
“Taxpayers will rightly question why NHS bosses are paying people off – at huge cost to the public purse – when they can’t get new staff in. In north Wales, two GP surgeries are terminating their contracts because they can’t recruit. Yet that health board has spent over three million pounds on severance payments. You couldn’t make it up.
“While some redundancy payments are inevitable, the scale of these figures is a cause for great concern. Labour ministers need to get their priorities right, ensure value for public money and guarantee an urgent end to the recruitment crisis that continues to undermine our NHS.”
