Hospital waiting lists in Wales have seen a record drop as the latest figures indicate the total number of patients waiting has now fallen for eight months in a row.<\/p>\n
There were 713,048 patient pathways – the steps from referral to treatment – on waiting lists in January, nearly 28,000 fewer than the previous month.<\/p>\n
The figures suggest a \u00a3120 million investment by Welsh government to specifically target the problem is paying off.<\/p>\n
But by some measures waiting time are actually up – the number of patients waiting longer than the target times for both diagnostics and therapies has risen to the highest on record since 2024.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the performance against the 62-day target in cancer care has dropped to 57% – 3.7 percentage points lower than the previous month and moving away from the goal of 75%.<\/p>\n
But in that same month, there was a rise in the number of patients referred with suspected cancer and in those being told they did not have cancer.<\/p>\n
Both figures give an insight into the volume of people being seen by the service for the first time.<\/p>\n
The Welsh government said the extra 187,000 outpatient appointments that health boards had delivered, and 37,000 cataract operations to date, were because of the additional funding this year.<\/p>\n
Health Secretary Jeremy Miles said: \u00ab\u00a0This set of record-breaking figures show just how hard the NHS is working.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Health boards are delivering more outpatient appointments, especially in the evenings and at weekends, and more operations, including cataract surgery – new ways of working to make sure people are seen and treated faster.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This is real, tangible progress for people in Wales.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Plaid Cymru health and social care spokesman Mabon ap Gwynfor said more than half a million in Wales were on an NHS waiting list.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0With 5,000 still waiting over two years, despite Labour’s previous promises to remove two-year waits altogether.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This, alongside the fact that only 57% of cancer patients begin treatment within two months, reflects Labour’s failing record when it comes to the NHS.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Reform UK’s James Evans called the latest figures \u00ab\u00a0appalling\u00a0\u00bb, blaming 27 years of \u00ab\u00a0of Plaid and Labour failure\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Progress has completely stalled for the longest treatment waits and the waiting list for diagnosis is the highest we’ve seen for over two years,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
Conservative health spokesman Peter Fox\u202fsaid it was \u00ab\u00a0clear\u00a0\u00bb the NHS was \u00ab\u00a0broken\u00a0\u00bb under Plaid-backed Labour governments.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Cancer waiting times are worsening, with fewer patients starting treatment on time and no sign of sustained improvement.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Labour and Plaid are failing those in need of urgent and life-saving care.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hospital waiting lists in Wales have seen a record drop as the latest figures indicate the total number of patients waiting has now fallen for eight months in a row. There were 713,048 patient pathways – the steps from referral to treatment – on waiting lists in January, nearly 28,000 fewer than the previous month. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}