1 week Ago By [email protected] (Ffion Lewis)
The number of people waiting for NHS treatment in Wales is at a record high.The most recent data, released by the Welsh Government in October, shows as of July this year there were about 619,200 people waiting on treatment waiting lists in Wales. This is the highest figure on record and has grown month-on-month for the last several months.
However this figure represents individual people but some of these people may be waiting for more than one treatment. Long waiting lists have been a huge issue for the NHS in Wales for several years and were made far worse during the disruption to healthcare services in the coronavirus pandemic. The Welsh Government set out targets as part of a recovery plan post-Covid to cut two-year waiting lists completely by March 2023.
That target was not met and two-year waits continue to grow month on month. The latest data shows there were just under 24,200 pathways waiting more than two years in August. This is the fifth month in a row that this waiting list has increased.
For the latest health and Covid news sign up to our newsletter here . While we are constantly told about pressures on the NHS the latest figures released by Stats Wales are still alarming. Adding to this are the disparities in key services such as A&E and ambulance wait times between different hospitals and health boards.
READ MORE: More than 600,000 people waiting for NHS treatment in Wales READ MORE: Man bleeds to death after ambulance takes more than nine hours to arrive And while it's often not quite as easy as looking at the statistics at face value they can certainly paint a picture of the types of waits patients can expect. Population, poverty figures, and geographical size can all affect the level of service one hospital or health board can offer compared to another. Nevertheless there are targets set on performance for each of these NHS services and we have looked at how each major emergency department and hospital in Wales compares (data excludes minor injury clinics).
Accident and emergency The target: Patients attending Ysbyty Glan Clwyd face the longest waits in an emergency department with just 40% of patients seen within four hours of arriving at A&E. In September 2024. The Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board saw the highest number of patients being seen within the four-hour target.
Every hospital in Wales is way off the 95% target of waiting for four hours or less in the emergency department. In total there were 91,780 attendances to Welsh A&E departments in September. The hospitals which had the highest numbers of patients waiting less than 12 hours in A&E were the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where 91.
3% of people were seen in this timeframe, as well as Bronglais General Hospital in Hywel Dda. Of the 91,780 people who attended major emergency departments in Wales in September this year 82,050 were seen within 12 hours meaning nearly 10,000 people waited longer. In April 2013 a target around the eradication of 12-hour waits in all emergency care facilities was introduced.
Nevertheless the most recent statistics show that more than a decade on thousands of people each month are still experiencing these lengthy waits. The ambulance service The target Emphasising the dire situation facing the ambulance service in Wales not one health board met the 65% target of eight minutes in September. Hywel Da Health Board performed best at 56.
6%. The most urgent calls are designed to direct ambulances towards people in life-threatening conditions. Unfortunately, due to increased pressure on the service, more and more of these are missed.
Paramedics and other staff at the ambulance service have also taken part in several days of industrial action in recent years in a dispute over pay and conditions. Overall in Wales in September 2024 just 49% of red calls were reached within eight minutes. Cancer treatment The target No Welsh health board met the target of 75% of patients starting their first treatment within 62 days in August.
(NB. While Powys is included in the chart no patients are currently treated by cancer services within this health board). The suspected cancer pathway starts at the point of suspicion (for example when a GP makes a referral) and ends when the patient starts their first definitive treatment, is downgraded (told they do not have cancer), chooses not to have treatment, or dies.
The Welsh Government response Every month the Welsh Government and Stats Wales release data relating to the performance of the NHS the month before. In October cabinet secretary for health and social care Jeremy Miles announced an additional £28m in funding for health boards. Alongside this and reacting to the latest data he said: "We have made tackling long waiting times our priority and today I’m announcing an extra £28m to help health boards cut the longest waits.
This new funding will pay for more evening and weekend appointments, high-volume clinics, and regional working to target the longest waits in specialties such as orthopaedics, ophthalmology, general surgery, and gynaecology. "These interventions will have a significant impact for people waiting for treatment, tests and outpatient appointments and I look forward to seeing these monthly referral to treatment time figures improve as today’s investment is reflected in NHS performance. Despite record levels of demand across the sector today’s figures show some progress in both diagnostics and therapies as well as performance against the 62-day cancer target increasing to 56.
5%. "Urgent and emergency care services continue to be under great pressure with the second-highest daily numbers of ‘red’ (immediately life-threatening) calls reported on record and sustained pressure at emergency departments. However the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust responded to the second-highest number of people in the red category in eight minutes on record.
"And although activity at emergency care facilities remains close to record levels admissions to hospital were more than 5% lower than at the same time last year, suggesting plans to support more people to avoid a stay in hospital are having an impact. We recognise more work needs to be done to support people with urgent care needs in the community and to improve timeliness of discharge home to help reduce long stays in ambulances and in emergency departments themselves. Our Help Us to Help You campaign supports people to get the right care at the right time from the right service.
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