NHS waiting lists in Wales highest on record

Emily Price

NHS waiting times in Wales are now the highest on record, according to the latest performance data.

The Welsh Government says the “disappointing” figures for April and May show there is a “long way to go” to reduce waits built up during the pandemic.

In April the number of overall patient pathways increased from just under 768,900 to just over 775,000 – the highest on record.

The government argued that the latest figures could have been affected by a “reduction in activity” during the Easter holiday period.

Plaid Cymru says Wales’ new First Minister, Vaughan Gething, had put waiting times “front and centre” of his leadership campaign – but had so failed to deliver.

Health Spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor said: “Labour’s complete mismanagement if the NHS in Wales has left us with waiting lists at the highest on record, targets for diagnosis and treatment are being consistently missed and people are getting stranded in A&E departments for hours on end.

“It’s no wonder that we have such astronomical waiting times when the government has failed to deal with problems in business the primary care and social care. Until the government gets to grip with these fundamental problems then waiting lists will continue to climb.”

‘Unprecedented’

The Welsh Government says “unprecedented levels of demand” had contributed to the long waits with more new referrals than ever before.

April saw the second highest average daily new referrals for any month on record.

In May, just over 36,600 emergency calls were made to the ambulance service.

This was an average of 1,182 calls per day, on average 87 more calls per day than the previous month, and 30 more per day than the same month last year.

The number of immediately life-threatening 999 calls in May was 25% higher than the previous year and demand is nearly two-and-a-half times higher than pre-pandemic levels.

More people received a response within eight minutes compared to May last year – but ambulance response times are still not meeting targets.

May saw the highest number of emergency attendances on record but performance against the four hour target remained stable.

Emergency admissions also fell by 2.3%, – the Welsh Government says this is a testament to the “success of new services” to help keep people out of hospital.

Cancer treatment

More people started their first cancer treatment in April than in March and more people were given the news they don’t have cancer than the previous month.

But despite treating more new and existing cancer patients in April, delivery against the cancer target fell.

The Welsh Government says it’s determined to improve consistency against this target for people who are referred with suspected cancer.

A spokesperson said: “We need to continue to provide more alternatives to emergency department care for people who do not need to go to hospital so we can safely support people in their local communities and prevent unnecessary admissions.

“We will continue to support our incredibly hard working NHS staff as they provide life-saving and life-changing care.

“We are very hopeful that junior doctors, consultants and SAS doctors will vote for the recommendations made by the BMA Wales Committees to accept the recent pay offers so that we can all focus our efforts on ensuring the best possible clinical outcomes for the people of Wales.”

Sobering

Director of the Welsh NHS Confederation Darren Hughes said: “There’s no doubt the latest figures make for sobering reading. NHS leaders are all too aware that this is not just a series of numbers on a page, but thousands of people’s lives being affected.

“The statistics also show sustained high levels of demand on the service, with NHS leaders telling us patients are more ill and therefore needing more treatment.

“We must acknowledge the relentless hard work of health and care staff and the care they do provide to thousands of people, day in, day out. NHS activity is at exceptionally high levels, it just cannot keep up with the record levels of demand coming in through the front door.

“The NHS cannot deliver effectively for all patients when things continue to run so hot. We need commitments from governments to longer term thinking, including focusing on prevention, shifting more care into the community, capital investment to make NHS estates more efficient and ringfenced investment so social care staff can have parity of pay. Without this, we cannot expect to see the meaningful change we all want to see.”