New Record Hit As Nhs Waits In Labour-Run Wales Soar
The latest Welsh NHS statistics revealed that overall waits for treatment in the Welsh NHS in October were 764,465 patient pathways – up again from 761,111 in September, with 596,000 individual patients waiting for treatment, the eighth consecutive increase and the highest on record, again. Nearly 1-in-5 people in Wales are on a waiting list.
Two-year waits remain at 25,669 despite a Labour commitment to eliminate these waits in March of this year. The equivalent figure in England was just 190 patients in October. At the current rate, it will take nearly 3 years to eliminate two-year waits in Wales.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Russell George MS said:
Waiting lists in our Welsh NHS have hit a new record high for both treatment and diagnostic services, with 2-year waits still standing at over 25,000 which is 135 times higher than in Conservative-run England. Labour is not delivering results.
The Labour Government need to get to grips with this and finally prioritise our health service. I am urging Labour ministers to park plans for more politicians and constitutional tinkering so that Wales can see a fully resourced health service an end to these atrocious waiting times.
However, it’s clear that only the Welsh Conservatives will commit to scrapping Labour’s vanity projects, spend the full 20% uplift from the UK Conservative Government on our Welsh NHS and deliver a substantial workforce plan to reverse the staffing crisis at the heart of our Welsh NHS.
The median time patient pathways had been waiting for treatment at the end of October remained the same as last month at 19.9 weeks, over 5 weeks higher than in England.
For diagnostic services, patient pathways waiting increased to just under 120,800 in October, the highest on record.
Again, less than half (49.5%) of the most serious (red) calls received an emergency response within eight minutes.
