A HEALTH chief has welcomed the decision of a hospital to resume accepting Welsh patients.

Last month, the trust responsible for running the Countess of Chester has confirmed it had stopped taking referrals for treatment from over the border amid a row over how much money it receives from the Welsh Government.

Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething announced last week that a deal over tariff rates had been reached with NHS England and he expected the Countess to start readmitting Welsh patients.

Geoff Ryall-Harvey, North Wales Community Health Council chief officer, had previously slammed the decision to stop readmitting Welsh patients - stating the hospital had decided to act "unilaterally".

But Mr Ryall-Harvey told the Leader on Monday that he was very pleased with Mr Gething's announcement.

He said: "The negotiation had been going on since November - which in Government terms is not long at all.

"But they jumped the gun and chose to end referrals pending the negotiation.

"They did it on their own and nobody followed suit.

"There was not a big impact. There were about 70 operations cancelled and most of them were orthodontic.

"I am not sure of the value of what they did. It was never acceptable that an internal argument over a technical issue should affect patients."

Speaking of what the deal now means for North Wales patients using the Countess of Chester Hospital, he added: "I think it means business as usual. "Anyone who had an operation either delayed or referred to another hospital can now expect to be treated at the Countess as they normally would - that is mainly people in the North East of Wales in areas such as Flint, Holywell and Deeside.

"The price is slightly higher now. The argument was around tariff, which is the price of each operation. "Recently tariff has risen in England and NHS England wanted us to pay around 8 per cent more.

"Noone [in the negotiations] got exactly what they wanted, but we settled in the middle."

Following the agreement of the funding, Mr Gething said: "Cross-border healthcare arrangements for 2019/20 have been agreed.

"My expectation is that the Countess of Chester Hospital will honour the agreement reached and reverse the decision not to accept new elective referrals for Welsh patients.”