Date set for Powys town councils to unite for first meeting to tackle cross border health care

Llandrindod Wells Town Council wrote to all town and community councils urging them to unite, to write to the Welsh Government and to help them lobby for better and more equitable healthcare for Powys residents and to revisit the funding formula. 

In their letter they said residents in Powys are facing a ticking time bomb with regards to NHS provisions from both the Welsh government and NHS England services.

They want to open up a dialogue between neighbouring town and community councils to take proactive action, as well as creating a united force to put greater pressure on the Welsh government for assistance in the matter and create more sustainable healthcare services in Powys.

They also want the local council to see collectively what they can do to help improve the provision of healthcare and social care services in Powys.

Now they have set a date for the meeting.

At February’s town council meeting, town clerk Jane Johnston said the first meeting will be held on Monday, March 16.

She said about 20 councils want to participate in a meeting while some others want to be kept up to date with information.

Jane said Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe MP David Chadwick is expected to come along but Senedd members have not been asked because of purdah beginning for the Senedd elections.

Members said they believe it is important for the councils to get together and share ideas and possible solutions rather than finger pointing.

They said they hope to come up with some questions which they can then ask candidates standing for the Senedd elections in local hustings to see what they would do if they were voted in.

Councillor Paul Smith said he felt it is important to get the people’s views and then they can use those to question the politicians

Mr Chadwick has been campaigning on healthcare and he said Powys patients are being left in pain and facing soaring waiting times after Labour’s flagship promise on cross-border NHS cooperation unravelled



At the start of this Parliament, Labour Ministers repeatedly pledged that “two Labour governments working together” would cut waiting lists by using spare capacity in NHS England to treat Welsh patients more quickly.

He said in September 2024, the Secretary of State for Wales publicly committed to expanding cross-border arrangements so that patients could access earlier surgical treatment where capacity existed.

But more than a year on, Powys is seeing the exact reverse.

Spare capacity in hospitals in Herefordshire and Shropshire is no longer being used as it once was, and waiting times for many procedures have doubled almost overnight. Patients who could previously cross the border for hip and knee operations are now being forced to wait in pain, with some at risk of losing work or developing serious complications.

A petition started by the Liberal Democrats to reverse the new policy of extended waits has so far gathered over 1,500 signatures and is available to sign here: https://www.brlibdems.uk/health-cuts

During a heated exchange at the Welsh Affairs Committee, Mr Chadwick challenged Labour Wales Office Minister Anna McMorrin on why the promised reforms have failed to materialise.

The Minister was unable to provide any clear plan, deadline or timeline for delivering the cross-border expansion that had been announced. Instead, she pointed to ongoing discussions and general “statements of values” between governments.

When pressed directly on the fact that waiting lists in Powys have grown despite available capacity in neighbouring English hospitals, the Minister disputed the characterisation but offered no concrete action to address it.

David Chadwick MP, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, said: “People in Powys are angry and rightly so. They were promised faster treatment. Instead, they are being left in pain, left out of work and left wondering who is actually in charge.”