Number of patients waiting for NHS treatment reaches record high in Wales

The number of patients waiting to start NHS treatment in Wales has reached another record high.

Figures released today show there is an estimated 611,500 individual patients on treatment waiting lists – the equivalent of one-in-four of the Welsh population.

The number of open patient pathways also continued to grow month on month.

In May this figure increased from just over 775,000 to just over 787,900.

The number of patient pathways is not the same as the number of individual patients, because some people have multiple open pathways.

Despite this the rise to over 787,900 is also the highest on record.

The number of patient pathways waiting longer than two years for treatment also rose to 22,500.

As part of the Welsh Government’s own ‘Planned Care Recovery Plan’ two year waits in most specialities should have been eliminated by March 2023.

However this target has never been met.

In fact in May 2023 there were a further 17 specialties with pathways waiting more than two years

North Wales’ Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has the highest number of patient pathways waiting longer than two years to start treatment and the second highest for those waiting longer than a year.

Ambulance Response Times

Today’s figures also that the Welsh Ambulance Service received a record number of immediately life-threatening calls in June.

During the last month 5,127 ‘category red’ calls were to the trust – the equivalent of 14.7 per cent of all calls.

46.5 per cent of red calls received an emergency response within eight minutes.

North Wales recorded the second worst ambulance response times last month.

Overall throughout June just under 34,800 emergency calls were made to the ambulance service. This was an average of 1,159 calls per day.

Emergency Care

In June there were just under 95,000 attendances to all emergency departments, an average of 3,166 attendances per day

Across Wales 68.9 per cent of patients in all NHS emergency departments spent less than four hours in the department from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge.

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This is below the Welsh Government’s own target of 95 per cent.

Locally 58.2 per cent of those who used the Wrexham Maelor Hospital’s Emergency Department last month waited less than four hours.

Elsewhere in North Wales 50.7 per cent waited less than four hours at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and 49.9 per cent at Ysbyty Gwynedd.

More patients waited longer than 12 hours in Betsi Cadwaladr (1,424) than in any other local health board.

Response

The Welsh Government has described today’s figures as “disappointing”.

Health Secretary Eluned Morgan is also set to contact the leadership of health boards today to call for improvements in waiting and response times.

But Sam Rowlands MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister said today’s figures are the result of “25 years of Labour mismanaging the NHS.”

“These abysmal statistics show Labour’s performance on health continues to get worse here in Wales,” said Sam Rowlands MS.

“The Labour Welsh Government have consistently missed their targets and this is not just the outgoing First Minister’s legacy, but the result of 25 years of Labour mismanaging the Welsh NHS.

“The Welsh Conservatives would enact a substantial workforce plan to empower primary care services and would fully resource the Welsh NHS fully with every penny received for health, as opposed to Labour’s decision to squander these funds on creating more politicians.”

Sam Rowlands MS

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Our incredibly hard-working NHS staff continue to provide life-saving and life-changing care in the face of incredible demand for its services.

“More than 14,250 people were told the good news that they do not have cancer in May – an incredible number. It is pleasing to see performance improved against the 62-day target too.

“The number of immediately life-threatening (red) 999 calls to the ambulance service made each day was the second highest on record, and the proportion of these calls was the highest recorded.

“This level of demand – a 28 per cent increase compared to the same month in 2023 – means it is increasingly tough to meet the target response times, but even so there was an improvement in June and almost eight out of 10 calls received a response within 15 minutes.

“Performance against the 12-hour target for emergency departments improved slightly in June and the majority of people were discharged, admitted or transferred less than two hours and 50 minutes.

Health Secretary Eluned Morgan

“The number of emergency admissions decreased by 5.6% this month – a further indication that work through our national Six Goals programme to care for people closer to home is having an impact.

“But overall this is another disappointing set of NHS performance figures.

“The waiting list has grown again and, after 24 months of consecutive falls, the number of people waiting more than two years for treatment has increased for the second month in a row.

“The Health Secretary has made it clear to health boards that she expects to see progress – and sustained progress – to reduce long waits and waiting times for treatments.

“She will be making it clear to the leadership of health boards today that the situation is not acceptable and must improve.

“There is still a way to go to reduce the backlog, which built up during the pandemic. But the NHS continues to deliver an enormous amount of activity for a population of 3m people – since April 2022, more than 2.5m patient pathways have been closed at an average of 103,000 a month.”