DECISIONS on when vital health services can resume in the NHS in Wales will be made on a local level.

Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of NHS Wales, said he wants to see health boards making the decisions on when to resume certain elements of care.

Before Christmas, the NHS in Wales introduced a choices framework, which allowed decisions to be made on a local level, rather than a national one.

Dr Goodall said that should be used when deciding if there was sufficient capacity to restart services.

Speaking at the Welsh Government's coronavirus briefing today, Dr Goodall was asked what the situation would need to look like in order for services to resume.

He said: "We have to keep an overview of all of the relevant measures that we are tracking. Some of those are around community prevalence and the positivity rates.

"But on a day to day basis we are needing to monitor the NHS impact

"Before Christmas we introduced a choices framework across Wales to allow health boards to make of their own decisions about how they would balance coronavirus care and treatment alongside emergency pressures and alongside elective care.

"That meant that there were a number who needed to adjust there routine works, but even over the last few weeks some areas have been able to reintroduce some of the work.

"Where we have some flexibility in the system I do want local organisations to make those adjustments but we remain still much busier than we were in the first wave.

"We still have 50 per cent more patients in hospital beds for coronavirus related reasons than we did in the first wave.

"I still think there is some time to come for us to feel that there is capacity available but rather than make that a national decision I am looking for local health boards to introduce those services where they have the capacity."

Dr Goodall said that urgent work is being carried out in terms of cancer care and cardiac care.

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He added: "It takes a few weeks for falling infection rates to be felt across the NHS. We are now starting to see some easing of pressure.

"The pandemic has had an impact on every aspect of the NHS.

"I wanted to give you a sense of the scale of the pandemic.

"Around 175,000 people in Wales have tested positive for coronavirus and the real numbers will be much higher. Nearly 30,000 have been admitted to hospital.

"As the position stabilises we expect to be able to expand the range of services provided.

"During the pandemic there have been times where the NHS has had to pause some services, we now have a significant backlog.

"We are introducing a series of new approaches which enable clinicians to prioritise those most in need, and determine whether people can be better treated in other settings."