25,000 wait over 9 months for an NHS appointment in Wales
Welsh Conservatives have condemned the number of people waiting more than nine months for treatment on the Welsh NHS.
Latest statistics, released just days after the Royal College of Surgeons highlighted ‘unacceptable delays’ in Wales, show more than 25 thousand people waited over 36 weeks for an appointment during October:
http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/referral-to-treatment-times/?lang=en
More than one in seven people remain on a waiting list in Wales – 439,868. When Carwyn Jones became Labour’s First Minister in 2009, that figure stood at little over 200,000.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, Darren Millar AM, said:
“Month after month, year after year; Labour’s own target falls by the wayside and thousands upon thousands face scandalous delays.
“It’s a matter of national shame that more than one in seven people in Wales is waiting for treatment and it’s the vulnerable who are being hit hardest.
“25 thousand sets of family and friends and 25 thousand stories of worry and delay.
“Long delays for treatment can result in poorer patient outcomes and put people at risk of harm – communities across Wales deserve to know what Ministers are going to do to address this problem.
“Since 2011, Labour has starved our health service of one billion pounds and it’s the frontline that’s taken the brunt.
“Ministers should listen to the warnings from top surgeons and bring forward a strategy to solve this problem once and for all.”
