Long NHS waits to end by 2026, says health board

Wales' largest and most troubled health board has said no patients will be waiting for more than two years for NHS treatment by the end of this year.

Dyfed Edwards, chairman of Betsi Cadwaladr health board, said he was "fairly confident" there will be no one on the long-term waiting list by next January.

The north Wales health board has been under the highest level of Welsh government scrutiny for the best part of a decade with the situation there being described as "acute".

Figures for March, released two weeks ago, showed long-term waits across Wales falling to 8,389, the lowest since April 2021, but the majority - 5,747 - were in Betsi Cadwaladr.

In December, First Minister Eluned Morgan pledged to cut the number of patients in Wales waiting two years or more for planned treatments, from 24,000 to "about 8,000" by this spring.

Opposition parties said the March figures showed that target had been missed.

On Wednesday, Mr Edwards told Newyddion S4C: "We're facing a capacity situation - that's the central question.

"By the end of the end of this calendar year I'm fairly confident that no one will be waiting more than two years for treatment within this health board."

Speaking in the Senedd earlier this week, Health Secretary Jeremy Miles confirmed that Swansea Bay, Hywel Dda, and Powys health boards had no patients waiting more than two years.

But he said Cardiff and the Vale and Betsi Cadwaladr had missed their targets.

Miles told MSs: "The problem is most acute in north Wales, where from this week, Welsh government officials will work alongside health board staff themselves to focus on turning around its planned care position.

"I expect the health board to meet its plans to significantly reduce long waits by the end of the first quarter of this year."

The health board which was first placed in special measures in June 2015 and is still under the highest level of Welsh government scrutiny.

Newyddion S4C asked Mr Edwards when he expected that to be lowered.

"Our focus is on improving the health board itself, and the health and wellbeing provision for north Wales," he said.

"I think that coming out of special measures will be a by-product of the success of the health board."

When asked about the target of cutting the two-year waiting list for treatment, he added: "We're facing a capacity situation - that's the central question.

"By the end of this calendar year I'm fairly confident that no-one will be waiting more than two years for treatment within this health board."

On the health secretary's announcement that government officials were working alongside health board staff to focus on turning around its planned care position, he explained that the officials are there "to look at what steps we're taking, to understand some of the challenges that we're facing, and sometimes to hold our hand while we're doing the work".

"I think we've shown government officials that we're on the right track.

"Sometimes the government need that reassurance and there's nothing better than coming in to see for yourself, to get that evidence, and I think that's what they've done this past week."

A Conservative Senedd motion calling for a public inquiry into the health board was defeated by Labour and Plaid Cymru on Wednesday.

After the vote, shadow north Wales secretary Gareth Davies accused "successive Labour governments, routinely propped up by Plaid" of "mismanaging our health board".

"Instead of continuing to ignore the concerns of north Wales residents, as they have done by denying them an inquiry into over a decade of decline, they should be standing up for patients who have been badly let down," he said.

The Welsh Conservatives have pledged to hold such an inquiry if they win power at next May's Senedd election.