The shocking length of time patients are waiting before they are treated in the Welsh NHS can be revealed for the first time today by Plaid Cymru.
It shows that around 20% of all patients in Wales wait more than 26 weeks to be treated compared to just 2% in Scotland and 3.6% in England.
Plaid Cymru submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the health services in Scotland and England and then compared the data available in Wales. While around 97% of Scottish and English patients are treated within six months, the figure in Wales plummets to well under 80%. The target in Wales is 95% of patients being treated in 26 weeks.
Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Minister of Health, Elin Jones, said: “These figures are a shocking indictment of the performance of the Welsh Government compared to Scotland and England.
“In Scotland there was a highly critical report on the NHS in 2005. In 2007 rigorous performance management and target setting was introduced with control by the Scottish Government and the results are there for everyone to see.
“The Welsh Government needs to stop being in denial and take action now, particularly in the wake of the findings of the Nuffield Report on health systems in the UK. People in Wales deserve a Premier League health service – they are getting a Division Two one and that is not good enough.
“The Party of Wales’ findings illustrate the need to recruit another 1,000 doctors to create a sustainable NHS. Wales has one of the lowest levels of doctors per head of the population in the EU with only Romania and Poland worse off.”
