Latest Welsh Government figures show waiting times targets were missed again during September and delays in orthopaedic treatment remain ‘astonishingly’ high.
Overall – of 392,581 people waiting to start treatment, 91.5 per cent had been waiting less than 26 weeks (target – 95 per cent). That figure stood at 92.2 per cent in August.
98.1 per cent had been waiting less than 36 weeks (target – 100 per cent). That figure is unchanged on August.
Trauma and orthopaedic patients continue to make up a large proportion of those waiting, despite the Health Minister’s commitment to ‘all but eliminate’ the problem by March 2012.
Shadow Minister for Health, Darren Millar AM, said:
“Overall, over the course of the last month – nothing has changed. It’s as you were – missed targets, hundreds of thousands waiting and unnecessary suffering.
“It’s now five months since the Health Minister promised to crack down on the enormous problem of orthopaedic waiting times.
“Back then nearly nine per cent of patients were waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment. In September – nearly nine per cent of patients were waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment. So no change, no progress and no sign of the Minister’s commitment being met. That’s a staggering development that calls her strategy and effectiveness into question.
“Where the problem is worst – in Betsi Cadwaladr and Cardiff & Vale – the number of people waiting over 36 weeks continues to be astonishingly high. That’s despite millions of pounds of investment to tackle this very problem. Where’s the money going?
“It’s essential that the Minister’s empty promises of improvement translate into action as soon as possible.”
