community health councils in Wales that monitor the quality of the NHS services provided within the seven Health Board areas and provide information about available services to the public. Developments The Welsh government introduced a national robotics assisted surgery strategy in March 2022 with additional funding provided by local health boards over 10 years. Staff NHS Wales provides public health care in Wales and directly employs 81,044 staff, making it Wales's biggest employer. In April 2018 there were 1,926 general practitioners working in Wales, 83 fewer than in 2017. Most staff working for NHS Wales, including non-clinical staff and GPs (most of whom are independent contractors), are eligible to join the NHS Pension Scheme, which, from 1 April 2015, is a career salary-average defined benefit scheme. Pay The Welsh Health Minister Mark Drakeford decided that from September 2014 NHS Wales staff would be paid at least the living wage, resulting in about 2,400 employees receiving an increase in salary of up to £470 above UK wide Agenda for Change rates. The pay deal for NHS staff in Wales for 2018–2021 was said to be better than that for NHS staff in England because it guaranteed basic pay awards for the next three years to staff who are at the top of their bands. Cross-border issues The geography of Wales means that there are areas where cross-border arrangements are necessary. The population of north Wales is too small to support specialist units, so patients travel to Liverpool and Manchester. There are no large hospitals in Mid Wales at all. More than 31,000 Welsh patients were treated in English hospitals in 2013/4. In October 2014 Jeremy Hunt claimed that English hospitals close to the Welsh border were under "absolutely intolerable pressure" and that people were fleeing the "second class health service" in Wales. Entitlement to free prescription charges is based on the GP with whom a patient is registered, so some patients who live in England benefit from them. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust complained in June 2015 that commissioners outside England use a "burdensome" prior approval process, where a funding agreement is needed before each stage of treatment. At the end of 2014–15 the trust was owed more than £2.3m for treating patients from outside England. A survey by the Health Service Journal suggested there was £21m of outstanding debt relating to patients from the devolved nations treated in