Key Facts: NHS Wales Finances 2020-21
The Auditor General for Wales' opinion is that the financial statements give a True and Fair view of NHS Wales' finances.
However, four local health boards have failed to meet their financial duty to break even over a three-year period.
The NHS (Wales) Summarised Accounts sets out the combined financial results of all 11 Welsh NHS bodies as at 31 March 2021. These comprise seven local health boards, three NHS trusts and one special health authority.
Highlights
This is the second year the finances of NHS Wales were brought together in one set of accounts, after being presented this way for the first time in 2019-20.
Two health boards in Wales overspent for the fifth year running. Some positive progress, with the NHS Wales deficit falling from £89 million in 2019-20 to £48 million in 2020-21.
Additional funding allocated to NHS Wales for COVID-19 related expenditure up to 31 March 2021 was £1.3 billion. The scale of expenditure in 2020-21 is unprecedented. Our data tool shows how this and other income and expenditure is broken down
Funding and Spending
| Hospital, community and special services | £6.9 billion |
|---|---|
| Employee costs | £4,670 million |
| Supplies and services | £1,033 million |
| Other costs | £841 million |
| Premises | £388 million |
| Primary healthcare services | £1.6 billion |
|---|---|
| Payments to GPs | £590 million |
| Costs of drugs dispensed | £569 million |
| Payments to dentists | £172 million |
| Payments to pharmacists | £139 million |
| Other | £47 million |
| Payments to ophthalmologists | £43 million |
| Healthcare from other providers | £1.1 billion |
|---|---|
| Continuing care | £416 million |
| Non-Welsh NHS bodies | £311 million |
| Local authorities | £186 million |
| Private providers | £78 million |
| Voluntary organisations | £52 million |
| NHS funded nursing care | £49 million |
Staff Costs
£4.8 billion| Role | Number of staff | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent staff | 84,513 | £4,475 million |
| Agency staff | 2,292 | £157 million |
| Specialist trainee staff | 690 | £36 million |
| Other | 590 | £69 million |
| Staff on inward secondment | 326 | £25 million |
What they own
£5.6 billion
What they owe
£2.8 billion
Financial Duties
Financial Duties met:
Aneurin Bevan
Cwm Taf Morganwwg
Health Education and Improvement Wales
Powys
Public Health Wales
Velindre
Welsh Ambulance Service
Financial Duties not met:
...with accumulated deficits of £235 million over the last three years
Betsi Cadwaladr
Cardiff and Vale
Hywel Dda
Swansea Bay
Further Highlights
On 3 November 2020, the then Minister for Health and Social Services announced a package of strategic assistance funding for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board of £82m a year over a three and half year period to cover their annual deficit, to support improvements to planned and unplanned care and mental health services and to build broader capacity and capability in the organisation. This preceded the Ministerial announcement of 24 November 2020 to de-escalate the Health Board from Special Measures to Targeted Intervention
Following a Ministerial Direction in 2019 instructing the Welsh Government to fund certain pension tax liabilities for NHS clinicians, the Auditor General has once again drawn attention to a contingent liability for future costs reported in the accounts.
Of the £1.3 billion COVID-19 funding provided, £186 million was for field hospitals, £194 million for personal protective equipment and £28 million for the COVID-19 vaccination programme.