The latest figures show by the end of March 2025, waiting times
of more than two years have fallen to just under 8,400 – the
lowest level since April 2021.
Thousands more treatments and tests have been delivered across
NHS Wales due to more evening and weekend appointments, regional
working between health boards and renewed efforts to improve
access to planned care.
The overall size of the waiting list has also fallen for the
fourth month in a row and there were also falls in long waits for
outpatient appointments and diagnostic treatments in March 2025.
The Health Secretary invested £50m in health board plans to
reduce the longest waiting times for treatment, to increase
access to diagnostic tests and outpatient appointments and to cut
long waiting times for children's neurodevelopmental assessments
in November 2024.
Management information indicates the additional funding has
provided:
- 5,143 additional treatments over and above core NHS activity
- 2,160 additional diagnostic tests over and above core NHS
activity
- 6,084 additional outpatient appointments over and above core
NHS activity
- 2,166 additional neurodevelopmental assessments over and
above core NHS activity, eliminating three year waiting lists
Health Secretary said: “The latest
NHS performance figures show long waiting times are now at their
lowest levels since April 2021 and the overall size of the
waiting list has fallen for four months in a row.
“There are now just under 8,400 people waiting more than two
years
“I would particularly like to praise Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda
university health boards, which have joined Powys Health Board in
having no patients waiting more than a year for a first
outpatient appointment or two years for treatment.”
The latest figures also show the best performance against the
62-day cancer target since August 2021, at 63.5%.
Pressure on emergency services continues but performance against
the four-hour and 12-hour emergency department target improved in
April 2025, compared to the previous month. And more than half of
life-threatening 999 ‘red' calls to the Welsh Ambulance Service
were responded to within the eight-minute target time.
Mr Miles added: “Our focus is now on supporting
the NHS to continue to eliminate all two-year waits; to reduce
the overall waiting list by 200,000 over the course of this year
and to restore the maximum eight-week waiting time for diagnostic
tests by March 2026.
“This is an ambitious aim and will require hard work over the
coming year from everyone in the health service, but I am
confident that together we can achieve this.
“I'd like to thank our NHS staff for their hard work getting us
to this point.
“Together, we can continue to improve timely access to care for
people across Wales.”
Notes to editors
The latest NHS Wales performance data for March and April is
available here: NHS activity and
performance summary | GOV.WALES
