Hospital waiting times improve for second month

The waiting list for hospital treatment in Wales has fallen slightly for the second month in a row.

But the Welsh government's target to reduce the numbers waiting longer than two years – in most specialties – has still not been met.

In January, 613,000 patients were waiting for 796,802 treatments to take place, down from 800,395 treatments in December.

A higher proportion of the most urgent, life-threatening calls to the ambulance service got a response within eight minutes, but at 51.1% it remains well short of the target of 65%.

The total number waiting longer than two years is just under 21,100.

The target to eliminate waits this long applies in certain specialities, but even within these areas there are 2,713 people waiting more than two years.

These specialities include Accident and Emergency, Cardiology, Radiology and Midwifery.

Figures for emergency care in February also paint a picture of a service that is still incredibly busy.

Earlier this month the ambulance service announced plans to change the way it handles the most urgent calls.

There has also been an increase in daily attendances at A&E but there were improvements on the four and 12-hour waits.

In February, 67.7% of patients in all NHS emergency departments spent less than four hours in A&E from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge, against a target of 95%.

A total of 8,955 patients waited 12 hours or more – the target is for no-one to wait that long.

Performance against the 62-day target for cancer services worsened, dropping to 57.4%, a drop of 4% on the previous month, but more patients started their first treatment in January, suggesting there were more patients within the service.

But published data does not capture the full extent of what NHS cancer services are contending with, as we do not have information on the numbers still being treated or who has been diagnosed with secondary cancers.

Welsh Health Secretary Jeremy Miles said: "The latest figures show urgent and emergency care services across Wales continue to be extremely busy, but performance improved again in February against key targets."

Mabon ap Gwynfor, the Plaid Cymru health spokesman, said: "Despite seeing a small decrease today, Labour have presided over years on years of lengthening waiting lists, meaning more and more people are waiting, and waiting longer to be seen by our NHS."

His Conservative counterpart James Evans added: "Progress remains far too slow for treatment lists and Eluned Morgan is set to miss her third annual target in a row for the longest waits."