Waiting times for Gwent patients reach a new high

By August 31, 4,308 patients from Gwent had been waiting longer than 36 weeks, the majority (3,733) for treatment at one of the area's hospitals.

The increase in long waits for treatment in Gwent reflects the bigger picture in Wales - since March 31, the amount of patients waiting more than 36 weeks across the country has grown by close to 10,000, to 28,654.

The latest referral to treatment time (RTT) figures come as Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is embarking upon a second programme of out-of-area treatments.

The first programme took place in the early months of this year, when more than 400 orthopaedic and ophthalmology (cataracts) patients were offered operations at an NHS Treatment Centre in Bristol.

That programme, along with additional Welsh Government-funded activity closer to home, helped cut by more than a third in two months the number of patients who had waited more than 36 weeks.

But since the beginning of 2015/16 the numbers have risen again as that funding ceased, while treatment capacity issues continue to tax hospital bosses, and recruitment problems in ophthalmology persist.

The August figures are also likely to have been affected by specialists' summer holiday absences.

Orthopaedics continues to contribute the largest single number of patients waiting more than 36 weeks.

In Gwent by the end of August, 1,875 patients had been waiting longer than 36 weeks for a range of treatments, including hip and knee replacement surgery.

There were also 1,415 patients on the ophthalmology list who had waited more than 36 weeks by the end of August, more than double the amount (603) at the end of March.

Two hundred ear, nose and throat (ENT) patients had been waiting longer than 36 weeks by the end of August, compared to 49 on March 31.

General surgery (319) and gynaecology (205) are other three-figure contributors to the amount of waits longer than 36 weeks.