NHS waiting lists see biggest drop but A&E and cancer pressures remain | UK News

The number of patients waiting for treatment has seen its biggest monthly drop on record, Welsh government figures have shown.

The figure now stands at just under 757,900 – a drop of 23,400.

They also show a fall in the numbers waiting two years for treatment. The majority of the 6,900 patients waiting that long are in north Wales.

While £120m of government investment has been pumped into those two big areas since June, the number of patients spending less than four hours in A&E remains a problem.

It is an area that the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has long campaigned needs attention, with warnings of patient harm as a consequence.

Likewise the performance against targets for cancer treatment has also deteriorated, with 58.4% of patients starting treatment within 62 days of cancer being suspected.

Surgeons are warning that access to theatre space and staff burnout could affect further improvement in waiting times.

Prof Jon Barry, director for Wales at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “Patients across Wales are living with pain, uncertainty and delays that affect their daily lives.

“They deserve timely, safe care they can rely on.”

The emergency figures for December show just under 87,700 patients attending A&E, with performance against the four-hour and 12-hour targets worsening.

Over time the trends show an increase in attendance in hospital emergency departments, but with 64.3% of patients spending less than four hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged, which is the lowest in three years.

The goal is 95%, though that has never been met.

Ambulance response times were also slightly longer in December for both the purple (for cardiac arrests) and red (life-threatening emergencies) categories, with averages standing at seven minutes and 35 seconds for purple, and nine minutes 20 for red.

Since changes were introduced last summer to prioritise those in most urgent need, the proportion of patients arriving at hospital who were breathing after a cardiac or respiratory arrest improved during December.

Nesta Lloyd-Jones, the assistant director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, said it was “very positive” to see progress made, after confirming that many performance areas are “strides ahead” of where they were at this time last year.

“This includes considerable improvements in ambulance handover delays leading to faster care and better outcomes for patients,” she added.

But Lloyd-Jones did warn that the NHS cannot “rely on unplanned targeted funding alone” to improve performance.

She added: “Without a wholesale shift in focus to prevention, a sustainable plan for social care and a re-think on capital investment, there is a risk surges in progress will be short lived.”

Jeremy Miles, cabinet secretary for health, said: “The Welsh government has provided substantial funding to help people be seen faster with 127,000 extra appointments already delivered, including on weekends.

“There were also important reductions in ambulance handover delays in December compared to the same month in 2024, meaning people are spending less time in an ambulance before being transferred to a hospital’s emergency department.”

Mabon ap Gwynfor, health spokesman for Plaid Cymru, said: “Every number on a waiting list is a person in pain, and the latest figures show waiting times remain high – patients across Wales are paying the price, and frontline staff are at the brink.

Peter Fox, Welsh Conservative health spokesman said: “Ambulance response times, cancer treatment target performance and emergency department waits have all worsened, with the latter being further from the target than it has been for three years.”

A Reform UK Wales spokesperson has said: “Our Welsh NHS cannot afford another four years of Labour. They have mismanaged our health service for a generation, delivering misery for patients and staff alike.”