Health board bottom in almost half of NHS key targets

Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter

A new report shows a Welsh health board performed worst in the country in nine of 20 key performance measures.

The report shows that Betsi Cadwaladr University, which covers all of north Wales, was bottom of all seven health boards when judged against 9 of 20 “key national targets.”

The report also states the region’s emergency care departments continue to face significant delays, with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board ranking seventh out of seven Welsh health boards for long stays.

The statistics were released ahead of the health board’s annual general meeting today (Wednesday, July 29).

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has been in and out of special measures since 2015, and was placed back under the framework in February 2023.

This covers areas such as long waits in A&E departments and delays with results after diagnostic testing.

Recorded in March 2026, a total of 3,843 north Wales patients spent 12 hours or more in all major and minor emergency care facilities from arrival until admission, transfer, or discharge.

Across the whole of Wales, 10,939 patients spent 12 hours or more in emergency facilities, meaning Betsi Cadwaladr accounted for over 35% of these total instances.

Additionally, nearly half of all north Wales emergency care patients (48.1%) waited more than four hours to be admitted, transferred, or discharged in March 2026.

This means 51.9% of Betsi Cadwaladr patients were seen within four hours, but that fell well short of the All Wales average of 64.2% and ranked seventh out of the seven Welsh health boards.

For diagnostic testing, the health board recorded 13,778 patients waiting more than eight weeks for a specified diagnostic procedure by the end of March 2026. This missed the national target of zero patients, placing the health board seventh out of seven of Welsh health boards.

The long waits for diagnosis represent more than half of the total across the entire country, accounting for roughly 55.7% of the All Wales total of 24,733 patients.

The health board also came bottom of the table in the percentage of patients starting cancer treatment within 62 days of the disease being suspected, with only 54% compared to the All Wales position of 60.2%.

Betsi Cadwaladr fared badly in several other areas, being placed bottom of the ranking in nine of the 20 categories. These included the number of ambulance handovers taking more than an hour; patients waiting over 52 weeks for a new outpatient appointment; and the number of patients waiting more than 104 weeks for referral to treatment.

The health board also ranked bottom in the number of patients waiting for a follow-up outpatient appointment delayed by over 100%, as well as bottom of the charts in terms of children and young people under 18 waiting over 26 weeks for a neurodevelopment assessment.

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