PATIENTS living on the English side of the border but registered with Welsh GPs have been wrongfully denied hospital treatment in England.

Affected people in the Forest and south Herefordshire have found themselves referred to hospitals in Wales – in line with Welsh Government policy – when they would have preferred appointments at English hospitals.

In a letter to Forest MP Mark Harper, health minister Jane Ellison has said hospital treatment is the responsibility of the clinical commissioning group in the area where the patient lives.

It also reinforces the fact that for primary care – that is GPs – NHS Wales standards apply so patients living in England are eligible for free prescriptions.

Mr Harper has been working with Forest-based campaign group Action4OurCare and Conservative MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire Jesse Norman to get the situation clarified.

In her letter to Mr Harper the minister said: The protocol has been in place for 10 years, originally under the auspices of the (health) department rather than of NHS England.

"At some point around 2009 those involved seem to have lost sight of the fact that the protocol was intended to be a temporary measure rather than a permanent solution that in some way overrode the legislation.

"My strong preference is – as I understand yours is – for the legislation to be implemented, and to be implemented as soon as possible.

"Achieving that raises a number of practical issues. Neither my department nor the NHS in England has powers over the NHS in Wales, so we need to work cooperatively with the Welsh Government and the Welsh NHS to find a solution and to agree a timetable for delivering it.

Mr Harper said: "I am glad that the Department of Health has recognised, as my constituents and I have been arguing to for a while, that English residents registered with Welsh GPs should have the same rights with regard to secondary care as all other English residents.

"The law is clear in that secondary care for English patients is the responsibility of the clinical commissioning group in the area where that patient lives.

"This means that English patients the right to choose where they receive their secondary health care, access to the Cancer Drugs Fund and access to the improved standards offered by NHS England."

Pam Plummer of Action4OurCare welcomed the minister's statement and said there should be agreement as quickly as possible to give patients their rights – as promised by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt earlier this year.

She said: "We need NHS England and NHS Wales to work together to give our GPs the proper resources to implement this properly in the surgeries.

"We need Mr Hunt to keep the promise he made in the House of Commons and give us our legal rights."

Mrs Plummer was at Westminster on Tuesday giving evidence to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee's inquiry on cross-border health care.