Arthritis UK Cymru is calling on each political party in Wales to have a credible plan to help improve the lives of people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions like arthritis, as campaigning for the Senedd Elections gets underway.
The charity is calling for improved services and care for nearly 1 million people living in Wales with a musculoskeletal condition, many of whom live with debilitating daily pain.
Conditions such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis can affect every aspect of day-to-day life, limiting people’s ability to work and earn, learn, socialise and live the life they want. In turn, this impacts Welsh families, the NHS and the economy, says Arthritis UK’s manifesto for the 2026 Senedd Elections, published today.
There, Arthritis UK Cymru sets out the actions for the next Senedd and Welsh Government to reduce the impact of these conditions, which currently affect 991,000 people in Wales, including 31,000 young people and children.
The manifesto calls for:
- urgent action to tackle excessively long waiting times for orthopaedic surgery that are devastating tens of thousands of lives across Wales.
- arthritis and MSK conditions to be a national public health priority.
- better support for young people and children living with arthritis.
Heather Bennett Doy-Jones from Welshpool has been living with pain since they were two years old. They said:
“I have been in pain every day of my life since I was two. I have felt my bones grinding on each other, feeling like there are stones in my joints. It’s like I’m drowning in treacle just trying to carry on and do the basics – the daily things that most people don’t think about but seem impossible when you have arthritis. In Wales, it feels like it’s either one extreme or the other: sometimes support and information is very good, but a lot of the time it’s not there at all.”
Deborah Alsina MBE, Chief Executive of Arthritis UK, said:
“Everyone accepts that waiting times are not where they should be, but that’s not enough. What is often missed is just how devastating these waits can be – people are losing their mobility, independence and even their ability to work. So many lives have been put on hold. It doesn’t have to be this way. Clearing the backlog and reducing waiting times needs to be one of the highest priorities for the current and next Welsh Government. This is why Arthritis UK is demanding a dedicated Minister for Healthcare Access, responsible for reducing long NHS waits such as those in orthopaedics which are causing so much pain and distress in families across Wales.”
Mary Cowern, Head of Nation, Arthritis UK Cymru, said:
“The challenges around reducing waiting times in Wales are significant. While progress has been made, there is still a long way to go. We cannot allow waiting two years in severe pain for surgery to become an acceptable ‘new normal’.
“Reducing orthopaedic waits needs to be a national priority. We are calling for plans to clear the orthopaedic backlog as soon as possible, and to reduce waits to pre-pandemic levels.”
Arthritis UK’s Manifesto for Wales has set out how clearing the backlog of people waiting for orthopaedic surgery must be a priority, as well as asking for:
- a Minister for Healthcare access, with responsibility for tackling waiting times.
- an expanded network of local and regional surgical hubs, informed by regional and national capacity action plans.
- equitable access to high-quality paediatric rheumatology and MSK services provision across Wales, with a review of services in North and Mid-Wales a priority.
The picture in Wales
Arthritis UK has worked with YouGov to survey 8,000 people representative of the population affected by this condition. From this sample, 644 were from Wales. From these, one in four people (41%) said arthritis severely or very severely impacted their life in the past year. Almost seven in ten surveyed (69%) said they areliving in pain most or all the time due to their arthritis. The survey also found:
- nearly half of those (43%) surveyed felt their condition was not well managed.
- more than half of those surveyed (51%) felt their symptoms were not taken seriously or were underplayed by a frontline healthcare professional when they were trying to identify their arthritis.
- over half (55%) of those surveyed reported their ability to exercise was affected severely or very severely by their arthritis symptoms – even though being active can be important in preventing other long-term conditions.
- nearly seven in ten people (69%) said that waiting for treatment had an impact on their mental health.
- one in two (57%) said that arthritis had impacted their ability to work. Of these, more than four in ten people (45%) have stopped work due to their arthritis and more than four in ten people (41%) said arthritis played a part in their decision to retire.
To read Arthritis UK’s Manifesto for Wales please visit www.arthritis-uk.org
- *By 2050, one billion people globally will have arthritis, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.
- Arthritis UK is the largest dedicated funder of arthritis research and has a long legacy of funding research programmes. It has invested more than £367million over the last two decades.
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