GWENT'S health board hit its first monthly target in its quest to eliminate long waits from referral to treatment for the area's patients.

By the end of September, according to the latest figures issued by the Welsh Government, 1,526 patients in Gwent had been waiting longer than 36 weeks for treatment in Aneurin Bevan Health Board hospitals, since referral by their GP.

That is 129 less than the August 31 figure, and crucially, 116 fewer than the estimated number for the end of September, predicted in the board's plan to eliminate waits of more than 36 weeks by the end of March next year.

The fall in patients waiting longer than 36 weeks in Gwent mirrors a Wales-wide reduction approaching 500 during September. In Gwent and Wales as a whole, these were the first reductions since last March.

The health board approved the aforementioned recovery plan for eliminating 36-week waits in September, based on separate sub-plans for nine individual specialities and a grouping of the rest.

The aim is for waits longer than 36 weeks in general surgery, ENT (ear, nose and throat), ophthalmology, gynaecology and 'other specialities' to be eliminated by the end of this month, with orthopaedics up to date by the end of December.

Urology would be next, eliminating longer waits by the end of February, with oral surgery - which has the biggest backlog - following by the end of March.

Vital to the achievement of these monthly targets however, is the ability of the rest of the hospitals system in Gwent to cope with surges in demand during the winter months.

During the first four months of 2013, 526 routine operations were cancelled because surges in medical admissions meant beds earmarked for surgical patients were occupied by medical patients.

General surgery was the worst individual specialty affected, losing more than 180 operations, but even orthopaedics, which had not suffered a loss of ringfenced beds for several years, lost 148 operations during January-April inclusive.

Winter plans will see an extra 125 beds available for opening in Gwent hospitals should the need arise, in order to minimise the cancellation of surgery.

But there is little room for manoeuvre, and another figure from the latest set illustrates just how little.

During September in Gwent the number of patients waiting 26-36 weeks from referral to treatment rose by 440 to 6,987.

A significant number of those will have approached the 36-week limit in subsequent weeks, adding to the challenge for hard-pressed surgical teams.