REFERRAL-to-treatment waiting times in Gwent hospitals remained below 36 weeks for the ninth month in succession.

Progress is being made, too, in reducing the number of orthopaedic patients in the 26 to 36 weeks waiting time category, though it is patchy for other specialties.

Gwent’s Aneurin Bevan Health Board was the only one of the six health boards in Wales with acute hospitals to meet the 36-week waiting time – intended as an absolute maximum only for complex cases – in November.

It was also alone in Wales in maintaining that target since first achieving it last March. But the number of Gwent patients waiting longer than 36 weeks for treatment in hospitals elsewhere in Wales rose again in Novem-ber to almost 600.

Aneurin Bevan Health Board has focused extra resources on avoiding, where possible, waits of more than 36 weeks in its hospitals since delays to orthopaedic treatments during 2010 caused a backlog of hundreds of patients.

Twenty-six weeks is regarded as the maximum referral-to-treatment waiting time for the vast majority of patients and, in Gwent, attention is focusing on reducing the numbers of patients waiting in the 26 to 36 weeks bracket.

By the end of November, there were 4,363 such patients, the largest amount being in trauma and orthopaedics, though the figure for that specialty for November was 1,371, a reduction of almost 400 in two months.

Waits of 26 to 36 weeks have also fallen for oral surgery patients, though in other specialties the numbers have risen.

There were 1,005 ear, nose and throat (ENT) patients waiting 26 to 36 weeks by the end of November, an increase of 300 in two months.

Increases were also recorded in neurology, ophthalmology, urology and general surgery.