Opposition parties criticise Welsh Government over latest NHS stats

Opposition parties in the Senedd have criticised the Welsh Government over the latest NHS waiting list figures.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Jeremy Miles welcomed a “significant fall” in the longest waits and the overall size of the waiting list in Wales falling for the third month in a row on Thursday (April 17).

Two-year waits have fallen to their lowest levels since June 2021 and were more than 26% lower compared to the previous month.

The number of pathways waiting more than a year for their first outpatient appointment has fallen for a third consecutive month and is nearly 28% lower than the peak in August 2022.

Treatment

The number of patient pathways waiting 36 weeks and the average time waiting for treatment were both lower than the previous month.

Mr Miles said: “This shows what can be achieved when health boards focus on delivering services, including faster treatment and increased NHS capacity, by embracing new ways of working.

“These efforts have been supported by our £50m additional investment.

“We still have more work to do to reach our ambitious targets, but it is encouraging to see waiting times consistently falling.”

The number of patient pathways waiting for diagnostic services fell compared to the previous month, whilst performance also improved against the maximum wait target for both diagnostic tests and therapies services.

Performance improved against the 62-day cancer target in February, increasing to more than 60%, whilst 1,800 people started cancer treatment and 13,000 people were told the good news they did not have cancer.

Discharges

March also saw a reduction in the total number of delayed hospital discharges, with a drop by 114 delays over the previous month.

This was the lowest delay figure over the past year and the overall second lowest since reporting began two years ago.

But Plaid Cymru says the new figures are “not statistics to celebrate by any measure”.

The NHS activity and performance report for February and March 2025 show that in February, when there were just over 793,900 open patient pathways, there were about 614,200 individual patients on treatment waiting lists in Wales.

Plaid says this data suggests that Welsh ministers are set to miss their target of bringing two year waiting lists down to 8000 by Spring 2025, with nearly 16000 pathways still waiting over two years.

It comes following repeated missed targets set in the Welsh Government’s planned care recovery plan, aiming to eliminate two year waiting lists originally by March 2023.

Waiting

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru spokesperson on Health and Care said: “Despite seeing a small decrease today, these are not statistics to celebrate by any measure.

“Over one in five of the population is on a waiting list, over fifteen thousand people are waiting more than two years, and only 60% of cancer patients are seen within the recommended time.

“Any improvements in the dire statistics are of course welcomed, but let’s not pretend that things are good, or anywhere near as they should be.

“On their own targets, the Welsh Labour Government are falling woefully short. Last year, the First Minister said she’d bring down two year waits down to 8,000 by Spring 2025 – these figures show 15,500 pathways still on waiting lists, near enough double the amount they said they’d bring them down to by now.

“And let’s not forget that the original target set in the planned care recovery plan was to eliminate these waits entirely by March 2023.”

‘Mixed bag’

The Welsh Conservatives also criticised the new statistics, labelling them “worse than a mixed bag”.

James Evans MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care said: “Labour Ministers will try to claim success today, but these statistics are worse than a mixed bag.

“The reduction in two-year waits is welcome, but the fact that they still exist at all, when they haven’t for so many months in England, coupled with worsening ambulance response times, is a testament to Labour’s failure to meet their targets.

“The Welsh Conservatives want to see improvements across the board and we can only achieve that by removing restrictions to cross-border, cross-community and cross-sector capacity sharing and by finally enacting a long-term workforce plan.”