WALES’S top auditor has called for a transformative change to health spending in Wales, as seven health boards continued to rack up deficit budgets.

Auditor general Adrian Crompton said today the NHS in Wales is still a long way from being able to live within its means.

He said: “As I enter my final year, it feels the NHS too is heading towards a milestone — a point where more of the same is untenable if the institution that we all depend on is going to be sustainable for future generations.”

Mr Crompton said all seven health boards failing to meet the statutory duty to break even over three years has become a recurring theme.

“Record levels of investment and ever-increasing levels of savings are failing to control the costs that are being driven by rising demand for services, inflationary pressures and overall growth in pay costs,” Mr Crompton said.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “NHS organisations continue to deliver significant levels of savings — £253 million is the highest level since the pandemic, and agency costs are now 46 per cent lower than two years ago.

“Our budget has continued to prioritise funding for the NHS — this year we are providing an additional £600m for the NHS and social care.”

But the Welsh government failed to address Mr Crompton’s call for a change in how the NHS funding model works.

Plaid Cymru health spokesman Mabon ap Gwynfor said: “The people of Wales have already come to the view that Labour has had long enough to fix the NHS, and has failed.”