THE number of patients who had been waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment in Gwent hospitals rose in October to its highest level since last January.

By October 31, there were 1.166 people who had been waiting longer than 36 weeks, according to the latest figures from the Welsh Government, up from 1,021 at the end of September.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has been struggling to reduce the number of waits above 36 weeks since last March, when the extremely cold weather and two bouts of heavy snow caused a spike in emergency demand that in turn triggered the cancellation of around 900 routine operations.

Dealing with the subsequent backlog whilst addressing ongoing surgical demands has proved difficult, and has not been helped by very high emergency and trauma demand during the summer.

This too led to cancellations of routine surgery, which has meant that a backlog has not only remained, but grown into the autumn.

A health board report stated that the loss of capacity during the summer "affected several specialities but particularly orthopaedics", and more than half (676) of the waits of more than 36 weeks at the end of October were for orthopaedic surgery.

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There were also 336 ophthalmology patients who had been waiting more than 36 weeks by the end of October, along with 91 in dermatology, and around 60 spread across other specialties.

The health board has been awarded £3.1 million in extra funding from the Welsh Government, dependent upon having eliminated treatment waits of more than 36 weeks by the end of December.

It will be some time before it is known formally whether that target has been met, but there were concerns among health board chiefs, particularly over orthopaedics, in terms of achieving it.

Hundreds of operations have been outsourced, with an ongoing source of extra capacity being the NHS treatment centre at Emersons Green in Bristol, run by Care UK.