We know that people have been frustrated by the amount of time they have had to wait for appointments, care and treatment and over the last year we have been able to make real inroads in reducing some of the waiting times for our longest waiters. We will continue to prioritise reducing waiting times as we move forward. We are also aware that we need to keep people better informed when waiting for procedures.
All people waiting over 156 weeks have now either received a date for their first appointment or have started treatment (with some challenges remaining within Orthodontics which are under review).
We have seen a 52 per cent reduction in people waiting 52 weeks for their first outpatient appointment (this is equivalent to 13,000 people).
We’ve seen a 42 per cent reduction in people waiting 104 weeks in comparison with our position last year (which is more than 6,000 people).
We’ve seen significant improvements in planned care, particularly when looking at Orthopaedic services and new ways of working in Abergele as well as our approved business case for an orthopaedic hub in Llandudno which will mean more people will be seen, sooner, at a dedicated site running for 50 weeks of the year. This will play an important part in reducing our waiting lists.
The number of patients waiting more than eight weeks for a diagnostic test has continued to fall significantly each month with 5,943 people waiting in November 2023 compared to nearly 10,000 in November 2022.
NHS Wales performance figures are published on the StatsWales website here.