The Welsh Government has published its draft budget for 2025/26, with the headline for health and social care being “more than £600 million in extra revenue and capital funding” to help reduce long waiting times, make improvements in mental health services, and improve women’s health services.
According to the budget’s narrative, this brings the total annual resource budget for health and social care to £11.915 billion, “more than 55 percent” of the government’s overall resource spending, and “the single largest area of spend”.
£400 million will go towards “additional allocations to the NHS” to help reduce waiting times, improve timely access to care, and support a pay award for the workforce; whilst £20 million is allocated for workforce education and training, with additional postgraduate medical and dental training places “ensuring we are training the workforce of the future”.
The draft budget also highlights the need for health boards to transform pathways and services, “including moving more care out of hospitals”, to deliver efficient and effective care in 2025/26. The increased capital budget will help, it states, “invest in fit-for-purpose, modern, reliable equipment and digital technology” to tackle waiting times by “addressing infrastructure fragility and sustainability”.
Mark Drakeford, cabinet secretary for finance, commented on how the budget will help “put Wales firmly back on the path of growth after 14 difficult years”, offering “a real opportunity to start to rebuild and reinvigorate our public services”.
The draft budget will be scrutinised by Members of the Senedd before a final vote in March 2025. To read the draft budget’s narrative in full, please click here.
Digital healthcare in Wales
HTN’s deep dive into digital and data across Wales took a closer look at the strategic direction, insights, recent developments, and more around digital healthcare. With insight from key stakeholders including Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW), InterSystems, the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust, and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board; we unearthed key priorities and outlooks from across the Welsh health system.
In July, Digital Health and Care Wales’ organisational strategy 2024-2030 was published and earlier in the year its 2024-2027 primary care strategy.
A new partnership was announced between DHCW and Life Sciences Hub Wales designed to “drive healthcare advancements in Wales through digital innovation” to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration between academia, industry, and healthcare providers. The partnership aims to tackle challenges identified across health and care; empower health professionals with the use of innovative health tech; encourage the co-creation of digital health technologies; contribute to job creation and skills development in Wales; and harness “the power of big data” to drive improvements in personalised care.
