Welsh NHS waiting lists rise again as minister pledges planned care ‘reset’

The health minister has pledged to reset how “planned care is delivered” after NHS waiting lists rose for the fourth month in a row.

Provisional data released today shows that in July there were just under 709,700 referral to treatment (RTT) patient pathways waiting to start treatment – an increase of around 11,300 since June. The estimated number of individual patients on a waiting list rose from 547,500 in June to 555,200 in July.

The proportion of pathways waiting less than 26 weeks dropped to 65.7% in July, while the number of patients waiting longer than 36 weeks to start treatment increased to just over 172,400.

The number of patients waiting the longest for treatment has also increased according to provisional figures, which show a rise in two year waits. Just over 4,700 pathways were recorded as waiting longer than two years. However this is 93.3% lower than its peak post-pandemic.

More than 12,500 patient pathways have waited longer than one year for their first outpatient appointment, which is also an increase on the previous month.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has the highest proportion of RTT pathways waiting longer than one and two years (16.7% and 1.2%).

Emergency department waits

More than 97,000 attendances were recorded at emergency departments across Wales during August – an average of 3,151 attendances per day. Today’s data shows that this was around 204 fewer attendances per day than in July.

Of those, just under 14,700 were admitted to hospital – a drop of 3.8% on the previous month. 10,977 patients waited 12 hours or more, a drop of 6.3% compared with the previous month.

Under the Welsh Government’s own targets 95% of patients should spend less that four hours on emergency departments from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge. No patient should spend more than 12 hours in an emergency department.

In August, 63.8% of patients spent less than four hours in emergency departments from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge – this was lower than the previous month.

Ambulance response times

947 purple calls – around 2.6% of all calls – were made to the Welsh Ambulance Service last month. This is an increase compared with July.

For patients in cardiac arrest for whom resuscitation was attempted, 19.7% had a return of spontaneous circulation at the time of arrival to hospital, a decrease compared with the previous month.

Throughout August 4,710 red calls were made to the Welsh Ambulance Service, a decrease compared with the previous month.

Overall 12,566 orange calls, 5,456 yellow calls and 1,482 green calls were also made during last month.

Cancer waiting times

In July, 2,248 people started their first definitive treatment in, a rise of 119 compared to the previous month.

The number of patients who were told that they did not have cancer decreased to 15,052.

At least 75% of patients should start treatment within 62 days (without suspensions) of first being suspected of cancer.

Performance against the 62-day target improved in July, rising to 60.1%.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

A detailed breakdown of health board performance is also included in today’s data. All Welsh health boards except Betsi Cadwaladr recorded either no pathways waiting longer than two years or a proportion below 1%.

Meanwhile, Swansea Bay has no one-year waits for a first outpatient appointment, while Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Hywel Dda have less than 1%.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board also recorded the worst performance against the four hour emergency department target, with just 57.2% seen within the time frame. The health board also recorded the worst 12-hour figure.

Opposition response

Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Minister for Health and Social Care, Natasha Asghar MS said today’s figures show that the NHS pressures are continuing to grow despite the change in government.

She said: “Patients are waiting longer for treatment, cancer targets are still being missed, thousands are facing waits of more than two years, ambulances continue to miss response targets and almost 11,000 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E in August.

“Yet this week, Plaid Cymru have been focused only on their obsession with constitutional change and independence, spending more time with the SNP and Sinn Féin than with the striking health visitors they promised to help.

“Patients across Wales will expect the Welsh Government’s focus to be on getting waiting lists down and improving outcomes for patients, not on breaking up our country.

“They cannot keep blaming others. Plaid Cymru are now running the Welsh Government and they need to take responsibility for delivering the improvements patients desperately need.”

Commenting on the latest statistics, Reform Wales’ Interim Leader Helen Jenner MS said: “Another month of Plaid Cymru has brought another month of worsening NHS figures for patients.

“These figures show Plaid are struggling to get a grip on the continuing crisis in our NHS. Instead of holding separatist meetings looking to break up the United Kingdom, Plaid should be getting on with the day job.

“Reform Wales will continue to hold this Government to account and fight for the timely, high-quality healthcare that the people of Wales deserve.”

Welsh Government response

Responding to the figures, Cabinet Minister for Health and Care Mabon ap Gwynfor described them as “disappointing” and said performance was “not where we want it to be”.

“This is why we are putting measures in place that will improve waiting times for people on a sustainable basis and ensure nobody is waiting more than two years for treatment,” he said.

“Earlier this month I announced how we are following a clinically led approach to clear the longest waits and bring the overall waiting list down to pre-pandemic levels before the end of this Senedd term.

“This is a new solution to an old problem, and one I am confident will not just cut down the existing backlog, but will keep it down on a permanent basis.

“We will do this by ensuring people start their treatment quicker, working with health boards to boost surgical capacity and reforming follow-up appointments to ensure more people are seen for the first time.

“Our plans to reset how planned care is delivered in Wales have been backed by an extra £145m being invested in NHS Wales this financial year. The funding includes £100m to support our aims of reducing NHS waiting times, £25m in new surgical and diagnostic hubs, and £20m on essential maintenance across the NHS estate.

“Health boards are now carrying out these plans and we need time for them to filter through the system and have an impact. I expect to see them making progress soon.”