Waiting lists for treatment in Wales have reached record levels for the seventh consecutive month in a situation described as a “fiasco” and “unacceptable.”
Latest figures for Wales’ NHS show the number of patient pathways increased from 796,631 in July to 800,163 in August, the highest figure on record – the equivalent of one in four of the Welsh population.
There were still 619,200 individual patients waiting for treatment in August.
Two-year waits have also increased again for the fifth consecutive month to 24,193.
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Health Secretary Jeremy Miles, who last week pledged an additional £28m to tackle waiting lists said: “We have made tackling long waiting times our priority.
“Despite record levels of demand across the sector, these figures show some progress in both diagnostics and therapies, as well as performance against the 62-day cancer target increasing to 56.5 per cent.
“Urgent and emergency care services continue to be under great pressure, with the second highest daily numbers of ‘red’ calls reported on record and sustained pressure at emergency departments.
“However, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust responded to the second highest number of people in the red category in eight minutes on record.
“And although activity at emergency care facilities remains close to record levels, admissions to hospital were more than five per cent lower than at the same time last year, suggesting plans to support more people to avoid a stay in hospital are having an impact.
“We recognise more work needs to be done to support people with urgent care needs in the community and to improve timeliness of discharge home to help reduce long stays in ambulances and in emergency departments themselves.”
Mid and West Wales MS, and Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds called the waiting list figures “obscene” and said “they paint a clear picture of how much damage Welsh Labour’s failings have had on our NHS.”
“Out of a population of just over 3m people, nearly one third of them are waiting for some form of treatment,” she said.
“This is quite frankly unacceptable, and the Welsh Government must tackle this waiting-list fiasco immediately.”
“We cannot delay action any longer.
“If we want to see a brighter future for our NHS here in Wales then we must take a bold and fresh approach with the aim of cutting down these sky-high waiting lists and making accessible healthcare a reality for all.”