Cross-border red tape delays are causing an “unacceptable clinical risk” for patients, a GP has told a parliamentary committee.

The Welsh Affairs Committee examined how health care could work better for people on both sides of the border with England at a meeting on Wednesday, 22 January 22.

Dr David Bailey, former chair of the Welsh Council of the British Medical Association told MPs and guests that while a patient could change GPs in a day or so inside both countries, that was not the case when moving across borders.

“It needs some joined-up thinking,” said Dr Bailey.

“It can take eight to ten weeks to go from country to country and that is an unacceptable clinical risk.”

Dr Bailey said there is one GP list in England and another one in Wales, and GPs would “love to combine them”.

Responding to Russell George, the Welsh Parliament’s member for Montgomeryshire, Dr Bailey said the only thing that needed to be done was to get “everyone to agree that the criteria submitted is accepted and… bang.”

The meeting also heard examples of when health care had let patients down, including when a cancer patient was moved from Hereford Hospital to an end of life facility in Wales. The end of life facility had been unable to access the case notes.

Dr Bailey said there had been a “lack of political will” to sort issues out.

Dr Stephen Kelly, chair of Welsh consultants committee, based at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, said in one case he had to chase a cross-border patient’s physical notes after the patient could not remember the name of the consultant he was seeing.

“Access to systems would be incredibly helpful,” he said.

Dr Bailey also said that waiting lists are shorter in England than Wales and that “Welsh patients are being disadvantaged.”