September 17, 2026 - 187 views
The NHS in Wales is continuing to face significant pressure, with the latest performance figures showing improvements in some areas but a stubborn backlog of patients waiting for treatment.
Health and Care Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor says the figures are “disappointing” and that performance remains below where the Welsh Government wants it to be.
The biggest challenge remains planned care. Earlier figures showed almost 700,000 referral-to-treatment pathways waiting to start treatment, with provisional data suggesting the total rose to around 710,000 by the end of July. The number of pathways is not the same as the number of individual patients, because some people have more than one waiting pathway.
Long waits have fallen substantially from their peak, but thousands of people were still waiting more than two years for treatment in the latest data. The Welsh Government has made eliminating two-year waits one of its main priorities.
The problems extend beyond planned operations. Diagnostic and therapy services have also faced significant backlogs, while ophthalmology remains under particular pressure, with almost 158,300 patient pathways assessed as being at risk of harm or significant deterioration waiting for an outpatient appointment at the end of July. Only around half were within their target date or within 25 per cent beyond it.
Emergency services are also under strain. July saw a record number of attendances at Welsh emergency departments, with more than 104,000 visits – an average of 3,357 a day. Around 64 per cent of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
There are, however, some signs of improvement. The Welsh Government says ambulance handover performance within 45 minutes was the best since May 2021, while response times for the most serious incidents and 12-hour emergency department waits also improved.
Cancer services have also shown progress. Nearly 2,250 people began their first definitive cancer treatment in July, while more than 15,000 people were told they did not have cancer. Performance against the 62-day cancer target also improved.
The new Welsh Government has made tackling NHS waiting lists one of its central priorities. In September it announced an extra £145 million for the health service this financial year, including £100 million aimed at reducing waiting times, £25 million for new surgical and diagnostic hubs and £20 million for essential maintenance.
The Government says the longer-term aim is to bring the overall waiting list back to pre-pandemic levels before the end of the current Senedd term. Its plans include increasing surgical capacity, changing the way follow-up appointments are managed and getting patients into treatment more quickly. An elective care task group is also working on plans for up to ten new elective care hubs across Wales.
The pressures are not simply about waiting lists. Health boards have also been dealing with financial problems, workforce pressures and difficulties maintaining buildings and equipment. Cardiff and Vale University Health Board remains under the highest level of Welsh Government intervention following concerns over its finances, quality, planned care waiting times, leadership and organisational culture.
For North Wales, the performance of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board remains an important part of the wider picture. Earlier health board data showed Betsi had some of the highest proportions of long waits in Wales, including 18.6 per cent of referral-to-treatment pathways waiting more than a year and 1.4 per cent waiting more than two years. It also had 43 per cent of diagnostic pathways waiting beyond the eight-week target.
The latest figures therefore present a mixed picture: there are improvements in some urgent and cancer services, but the scale of the planned-care backlog remains considerable.
