Independent panel set up to advise on specialist NHS treatment for Wales

Following a review into the Health Commission Wales, a new independent panel made up of members of the general public will be set up to decide which specialist treatments will be provided by the National Health Service, Health Minister Edwina Hart has announced.

The recommendation for such a body forms part of the conclusions of the review, commissioned by the Health Minister last October, into the role and remit of the HCW. The review was undertaken by Mansel Aylward, chairman of the Wales Centre for Health.

Ms Hart pointed out that the new panel would increase patient and public engagement in what was a difficult decision-making process. She said: "undoubtedly, commissioning treatment for individual patients rests at the cutting edge of medical science, but these decisions also draw on issues of morality and our shared understanding of what the NHS can be expected to provide as well as those of medicine and money."