THE number of patients in Gwent waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment at the area's hospitals, fell by more than a third (35 per cent) during the year to November.

And the reduction mirrored a general Wales-wide fall in such long waits while being the second largest in percentage terms - during that 12-month period - out of the six health boards that provide acute services.

The Welsh Government-set target demands that no-one should wait more than 36 weeks for treatment, but that has not been met for several years by any of the six health boards in Wales that provide acute services.

But the decrease in numbers, when compared to November 2015, will be welcomed by health chiefs, particularly against the backdrop of ongoing pressures on NHS budgets.

By November 30 last year, 2,422 Gwent patients were waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment in the area's hospitals, compared to 3,729 at the end of November 2015.

Big reductions were achieved in orthopaedics (down 28.5 per cent) and ophthalmology (down 61.2 per cent), which are the specialties that account for around two-thirds of all patients who have been waiting longer than 36 weeks.

There were also significant reductions in such waits in general surgery (down 39.3 per cent), ENT (ear,nose and throat, down 55.7 per cent), and gynaecology (down 74.7 per cent), though the actual numbers involved in the latter specialties were smaller.

The 35 per cent reduction for Gwent's Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in the number of waits of more than 36 weeks in the year to November 2016 was second only to Cwm Taf UHB's 59 per cent decrease. But all six achieved reductions in that 12-month period.

Eliminating waits of more than 36 weeks, as the target demands, remains a difficult and longer term challenge, however.

In Gwent, the aim has been to reduce to 1,281 by the end of 2016/17 (March 31) the number of such waits, and to confine them to orthopaedics.

Paradoxically, this continues to involve sending hundreds of patients to an NHS treatment centre in Bristol for orthopaedic and eye operations, to tackle capacity issues in Gwent hospitals.

But even allowing for this, the health board's end-of-year target may still prove optimistic.

Despite the progress made since autumn 2015, it may be into 2017/18 before that is met, and even longer before such waits are eliminated across all specialties.