Welsh Conservatives have expressed anger at figures showing Welsh patients waiting more than nine months for NHS treatment.
Figures out this morning show the number of patients waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment has risen by an astonishing 13,631% in the last 12 months, while the number waiting between 26 and 36 weeks has risen by 530% to 18,505.
Currently 325,009 patients are waiting for treatment, equating to 11% of the Welsh population.
The Assembly Government has targets that no patient should wait longer than 36 weeks and 95% of patients should be treated within 26 weeks. Both targets are being consistently missed.
Nick Ramsay AM, Shadow Minister for Health and Social Services, said, “Labour-Plaid Ministers need to get a grip on the problems causing these massive rises in patient waiting times.
“Tens of thousands of patients are waiting longer for treatment than this time last year, while the Minister has done little to tackle the problem.
“Despite the dedication and hard work of frontline NHS staff, waiting times are continuing to rise at alarming rates because of mismanagement at the top.
“We need to hear assurances from the Health Minister that she won’t deal with the problem of rising referral to treatment waiting time figures in the same way that she did with similar rises in inpatient and outpatient waiting times – by stopping collecting the data.
“Labour’s management of the NHS has been top-heavy with more managers recruited, while the number of nurses has fallen by a quarter.
“Recruiting more doctors and nurses to help relieve stretched NHS services will not be achieved by Labour’s plans to slash the health budget by £1billion over the next three years.
“Welsh Conservatives are the only party committed to protecting Wales’ NHS budget.”
