NHS waiting lists in Wales at second-highest level on record

New figures released by the Welsh Government show that in June 2023 there were 754,300 open 'patient pathways' in Wales – a rise from 748,400 in May.

This is the fourth consecutive increase and also the second highest on record.

Across Wales 589,000 individual patients are treatment waiting lists – an increase of around 5,200 patients from April.

This is despite the Welsh Government’s ongoing efforts to cut NHS waiting times.

Elsewhere the number of of times patients waited less than 26 weeks for treatment also increased to 59.3 per cent in June, whilst the number of times waits were longer than 36 weeks decreased in June, to just under 229,300.

This remains high in historical context.

About 28,300 waits were longer than two years - 59.8 per cent lower than the peak, and falling for over a year after a consistent increase throughout 2021.

Health minister Eluned Morgan has defended the figures – highlighting the efforts being made to tackle the longest waits.

Ms Morgan said: “It is encouraging to see progress on reducing some of the longest waits and the average waiting time for treatment in Wales is 19.1 weeks – 10 weeks less than the peak three years ago, and two-and-a-half weeks shorter than a year ago.

“This is despite the continued demand on our hard-working NHS staff. Referrals for cancer and other specialities were the highest on record in June, with overall referrals for treatment up 20 per cent on the same time last year.

“June saw the highest proportion of people waiting less than 26 weeks for treatment (59.3 per cent), for three years, and waits over a year for an outpatient appointment and two-years for treatment continue to fall.

“Waits over two years have now fallen by 60 per cent since the launch of our Covid recovery programme.”

Performance against the four-hour target for A&E departments also decreased.

During July there was an average of 3,061 daily attendances to emergency departments, a decrease compared to the previous month.

Across Wales 70.7 per cent of patients in all NHS emergency departments spent less than four hours in the department from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge.

This is below the Welsh Government target of 95 per cent of new patients spending less than four hours in an emergency department.

There has also been a slight drop in the number of category red – immediately life threatening calls – receiving an ambulance response within the eight minute target time.

In July 52.6 per cent of red calls received an emergency response within eight minutes.

This was two percentage points lower than in June, but the fourth highest since June 2022.

The figures have been criticised by the Welsh Conservatives, who have argued that the Welsh Government needs to reprioritise the NHS.

Welsh Conservative shadow health minister Russell George said: “The extremely low rate of reduction in two-year waits, which have been virtually eliminated elsewhere in the UK, is still unforgivably slow and is completely overshadowed by waits across the board in our Labour-run Welsh NHS worsening, especially given Labour’s abysmal record on cancer treatment.

“I was particularly disappointed to see that despite a fall in footfall in emergency departments, four-hour and 12-hour target waits for A&E have worsened. With Labour promising to cut the health budget in Wales for the second time in one year, the situation is set to decline further.

“The Welsh Conservatives have long been calling for a more rapid roll out surgical hubs and diagnostic centres to get on top of this backlog and to replicate Rishi Sunak’s plan to boost the workforce."