NHS Wales is the publicly-funded healthcare system in Wales, and one of the four systems which make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
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14 Facts About NHS Wales
2.
NHS Wales was formed as part of the public health system for England and Wales created by the National Health Service Act 1946, with powers over the NHS in Wales coming under the Secretary of State for Wales in 1969.
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3.
Responsibility, therefore, for NHS Wales was passed to the Welsh Government under devolution in 1999 and has since then been the responsibility of the Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services.
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4.
NHS Wales provides emergency services and a range of primary, secondary, and specialist tertiary care services.
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5.
NHS Wales provides services through seven health boards and three NHS trusts.
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6.
Current health boards were created on 1 October 2009 following a reorganisation of NHS Wales that saw the abolition of the 22 local health boards and seven NHS trusts that had existed since 2003.
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7.
Since the reorganisation health boards have been responsible for delivering all NHS Wales services, replacing the two-tiered trust and LHB system.
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8.
Health Education and Improvement NHS Wales is a Special Health Authority that provides education and training services for health care professionals.
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9.
Digital Health and Care NHS Wales, established in April 2021 is a Special Health Authority responsible for building and designing digital services for health and care in NHS Wales.
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10.
Health Technology NHS Wales, established in November 2017, is responsible for the identification, appraisal and adoption of non-medicine technologies in Welsh health and care settings.
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11.
NHS Wales provides public health care in Wales and directly employs 81,044 staff, making it Wales's biggest employer.
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12.
Geography of NHS Wales means that there are areas where cross-border arrangements are necessary.
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13.
The population of north NHS Wales is too small to support specialist units, so patients travel to Liverpool and Manchester.
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14.
NHS Wales has a specific waiting time target for diagnostic tests, different from England – the maximum wait for access to specified diagnostic tests is 8 weeks.
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