No let-up in long NHS delays
One in seven people in Wales remain on an NHS waiting list and the number of people facing treatment delays of over nine months is still over 25,000.
That’s according to Welsh government statistics released today: http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/referral-to-treatment-times/?lang=en
25,872 patients waited more than 36 weeks for a hospital appointment during November. The target is zero.
In all, 438,957 people were on a waiting list. When Carwyn Jones became Labour’s First Minister in 2009, that figure stood at little over 200,000.
The statistics follow recent criticism of NHS waiting times from the Royal College of Surgeons, which highlighted ‘unacceptable delays’ in Wales.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, Darren Millar AM, said:
“Labour’s performance on waiting times remains a national disgrace.
“Patients and their relatives will rightly question when things are going to improve and why Labour’s First Minister refuses to acknowledge the problem.
“25 thousand sets of family and friends and 25 thousand stories of worry and delay.
“No-one should be waiting more than nine months for a hospital appointment and these delays can result in much poorer patient outcomes and harm.
“Labour has starved frontline health services of one billion pounds since 2011 and it’s hardworking staff who’ve taken the brunt.
“Only Welsh Conservatives would protect our NHS, ensure an end to hospital closures and put patients and staff first.”
