Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care , said:
“This week, we've increased the amount of funding to support
health boards reduce the longest waiting times to £50m.
“This is an extra £22m, on top of the £28m I announced last
month. It will enable health boards to increase capacity in the
NHS in Wales and use the private sector, where available.
“As part of this £50m package of investment, £3m will go towards
cutting the longest waiting times for children's
neurodevelopmental assessments as part of wider work to transform
services.
“I'm pleased to see the number of patient pathways waiting more
than a year and two years for treatment have fallen in the last
month.
“This shows positive progress is being made across Wales to
reduce the longest waiting times. I hope to see this continue.
“While there has been a small rise in the overall number of
patient pathways waiting to start treatment, more than half are
waiting less than 26 weeks and there was a fall in the number
waiting more than 36 weeks in September.
“We recognise the impact long waits for treatment can have on
someone's life, both mentally and physically, so we have a
laser-like focus on reducing the longest waits and improving
access to patient care.
“More than 1,800 people started cancer treatment in September and
nearly 14,000 people received the good news they didn't have
cancer.
“There were also reductions in the long waits for both
diagnostics and therapies services and some reductions in the
numbers of pathway of care delays.
“Urgent and emergency care services continue to be under great
pressure – in October, the Welsh Ambulance Service received the
second highest number and proportion of immediately
life-threatening calls per day on record, but more than half of
these calls received a response within eight minutes.
“The extra £50m to reduce long waits will mean more people will
be seen and treated by the NHS between now and the end of March
and I want to thank health boards and local authorities for
embracing the 50-day challenge to speed up hospital discharge and
ensure people can recover from their illness or injury in the
comfort of their own home.”
