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The boss of an English border hospital has complained about "not being paid" for all its work by NHS Wales.

The chairman of the Countess of Chester Hospital, Sir Duncan Nichol has said it is "hard to countenance" to treat Welsh patients when it costs "up to £4m each year".

Now, the Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething is to write to his Westminster counterpart branding the comments "inflammatory and untrue".

The Welsh Government says its patients have been funded in line with the pricing rules set by the NHS in England.

Sir Duncan's comments were made at a meeting of the trust's board of directors.

He said the hospital needed to "win" arguments about funding with Wales otherwise "we will continue to run our hospital safely but not be paid for it".

A spokesman told BBC Wales Health Secretary Vaughan Gething would write to UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock "expressing his concern at the messages being given by a senior official in the English NHS".

They added: "The allegations made by the chair of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust regarding Wales not paying for its activity are inflammatory and untrue.

"This hospital relies heavily on patients from Wales and the statements made by the chair are not in the best interests of partnership working across the Wales-England border."

Funding from the NHS in Wales makes up 11% of the income for the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust, while Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which funds North Wales patients treated in Chester, is the second largest funding provider to the hospital.

The health board said it paid the hospital for its healthcare in the same way as it does other English health providers.