NEARLY 600,000 people are waiting for NHS treatment in Wales as lists continue to rise, according to new figures.

The record high numbers show that, of the 595,272 people on the waiting list, more than a third – 223,365 (37 per cent) – have been waiting more than 36 weeks for their treatment to start.

In March last year, just 28,294 people had been waiting more than 36 weeks – the Welsh Government target for treatment to start.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the initial cancellation of non-urgent treatment has seen the waiting list grow by 138,463 since then.

The Welsh Government said NHS services face an “enormous challenge” in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and it could take five years.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on our health and social care system,” a spokesman said.

“The pausing of non-emergency care and the need to introduce new infection prevention and control measures has led to record waiting times for treatment.

“The service faces an enormous challenge in recovering.

“We are now starting to see patient demand return to, or exceed, pre-pandemic levels for Welsh Ambulance Service and emergency department staff, at a time when PPE and other infection control requirements remain in place.

“Health boards are working to put in place new ways of working to ensure patients can be seen safely and as quickly as possible.

“We have also made £25 million available to transform urgent and emergency care.”

Last month, the Welsh Government set out plans to help the NHS recover – supported by an initial £100 million investment.

“As the minister set out, this process will take at least the length of this Senedd term and will require innovation in delivering care,” the spokesman said.

“We will continue to work closely with health boards and social care providers to drive this work forward.”

Conservative health spokesman Russell George called for “far more urgency” from the Welsh Government to fix the crisis.

“The pandemic has exposed Labour’s historic mismanagement of our NHS in Wales, with underfunding, service cuts and poor treatment of staff leaving our treasured service under immense pressure,” he said.

“We entered the crisis with record waiting lists and cancer targets not met since 2008, and as we look ahead, an astonishing one in five people in Wales are now stranded on a waiting list.

“For those in pain and desperate for treatment, we need to see far more urgency from the Welsh Labour Government to support frontline staff and implement detailed recovery plans to tackle this backlog.

“Labour ministers should listen to the calls from the opposition and the Royal College of Surgeons and create specialist hubs to tackle routine surgery as soon as possible so we can make a start eating into these record waiting lists.”

Meanwhile, the number of new cases of the Delta variant has risen to 488 – an increase of 173 since Monday, according to Public Health Wales.

In Wales 2.2 million people have received their first Covid-19 vaccine and 1.4 million people have received both doses.