New data shows the true scale of the waits patients are facing across different parts of Wales in the Welsh NHS.
A recent WalesOnline investigation showed the catastrophe of waiting lists. Figures showing there are more than 60,000 cases in which people are waiting more than two years for treatment whereas in England there are now fewer that 200 open waits for treatment. You can read the special report here.
WalesOnline has now gone through the data broken down by health board to demonstrate what the situation is across Wales. It is important to bear in mind that this data is broken down by the health board providing the treatment, not the health board area that the person in question lives in. Powys for example has no waits but doesn't conduct many types of procedure. There are almost 2,000 Powys HB area residents waiting over two years.
It is also worth remembering that these healthboards are not the same size. Betsi is the largest. This means that you can't compare the raw numbers, but rather the relative change in the figures over time.
This first chart shows the amount of waits of over two years. Though they have declined continuously for the last four months the rate they are falling is incredibly slow.
There are even more concerns when it comes for waits of over one year which are increasing across the board. These two charts show patient pathways waiting longer than a year for a first outpatient appointment as well as any patient pathway waiting over a year:
What do the health boards say:
A spokesman for Cwm Taf Morgannwg said: “We know that, in line with the Wales-wide picture, waiting times are not where they should be. The pandemic brought with it major challenges. We are determined to tackle this and it is a major priority for us. We are very aware of how difficult it is for people waiting for treatment, and that drives on our teams who are working incredibly hard and constantly innovating to reduce our waiting backlogs.
“An example of this innovation would be our Wellness Improvement Service (WISE), which offers alternative non-medical intervention and patient self-management education to patients on specified waiting lists including cardiology, pain management and respiratory. For some patients this could reduce the need for them to undergo surgery through improved self-management of their condition.
“We are in contact with all our patients who have been waiting more than a year, and checking with them that our lists are up to date and accurate. In some cases, we are talking to patients to see if they are willing to travel to other hospitals within our Health Board, as this could lead to shorter waiting times as we look to maximise all additional capacity.”
Andrew Carruthers director of operations for Hywel Dda UHB said: "Recovery and reducing waiting lists for our patients is a key priority for our health board. We are tackling this in a number of ways. We are increasing our capacity to provide treatment, for example undertaking more mental health assessments for under 18s, and providing a new team in Endoscopy working outside of usual hours to see and treat patients, helping reduce the waiting lists.
"We have introduced a rapid diagnosis clinic for suspected cancer patients with vague symptoms, who do not meet criteria for site-specific pathways, to help get them a diagnosis and required treatment quickly. We are also checking waiting lists to ensure we have an accurate, up-to-date picture and forecasting. Our teams of clinical and support staff are working hard to ensure that remaining patients who have not been treated are seen as soon as is possible."
A spokesman for Swansea Bay HB said: "Inevitably, as with all NHS organisations across the UK, Covid-19 has had an impact on Swansea Bay services. We know that many patients are waiting longer for treatment than they, and we, would like. We understand how frustrating and distressing this is for them. Our Changing for the Future programme involves creating a series of centres of excellence at our main hospitals. This will allow us to work through the backlog as quickly and efficiently as possible.
"For example, we are developing new operating theatres at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, which is to become the centre of excellence for planned orthopaedic and spinal surgery. Additional theatres will also be built at Singleton Hospital, which will become the centre of excellence for other planned surgery and a range of specialties such as cancer care and ophthalmology. This summer we opened a £4 million, state-of-art theatre exclusive to ophthalmology at Singleton, which is already helping to reduce the wait for eye surgery."
A spokeswoman from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “We understand how difficult it has been for individuals who have been waiting a long time for treatment. Our health service remains under huge pressure due to the high levels of demand on services, and this sustained pressure continues to present challenges to the way we deliver care.
"As a health board, we have developed an innovative programme of projects to help our services recover from the pandemic and to transform the way we provide care. Our recovery programme is focused on improving access to services by increasing capacity and reducing waiting times, transforming clinical pathways and in doing so, enhancing our services for staff and patients.
"There are a number of planned care initiatives currently being progressed across our sites including the establishment of a mobile ophthalmology theatre at University Hospital of Wales to reduce waiting times for cataract operations, and a mobile endoscopy unit at University Hospital Llandough to create additional capacity within our diagnostic endoscopy services. Along with the development of a hybrid cardiac rehabilitation service, which allows care to be delivered closer to home with a mix of virtual, home-based and face-to-face clinics.
"Our teams across the Health Board continue to work tirelessly to deliver additional activity, including over weekends, to help reduce waiting times for treatment. Our priority remains providing timely and safe care to all our patients, and we are determined to tackle the backlog of patients currently waiting for treatment.”
A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: "Our staff have worked very hard to reduce our waiting times following the serious disruption to our services over the past two years, and we are pleased to see that this is reflected in the data. However, we recognise that many of our patients are still waiting longer to be seen than we would like them to.
“Patients on our waiting lists are not just numbers to us; every one of them is an individual whose life is being affected by having to wait, and so our staff are continuing to do everything they can to reduce our waiting times and to prioritise the most clinically urgent cases. It’s important to note that these backlogs are not unique to any one Health Board; we are currently experiencing these issues right across NHS Wales and in other parts of the UK.”
A Powys spokeswoman said: "We continue to work with neighbouring health boards on their plans to reduce waiting times for patients."
Gill Harris, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s deputy CEO and executive director of integrated clinical services, said:
“I apologise for the time patients have waited and we are doing everything we can to provide treatment as quickly and as safely as possible. We are working hard to ensure those people waiting for planned appointments and treatment are seen in order of clinical priority, as quickly and as safely as possible. Outpatient activity has been restored to pre-pandemic levels and we have put a number of extra clinics and measures in place to ensure our longest-waiting and most clinically urgent patients are seen as quickly as possible.
“We have sourced additional capacity by working with other external providers for services such as Orthopaedics, Dermatology and Ophthalmology, and we are looking to expand on this. A number of patients who meet the clinical criteria have already benefitted from these arrangements. In some specialities, including diagnostics, we have with other providers for certain procedures on our existing NHS premises to deliver extra clinical capacity. This has helped us better meet demand for diagnostic tests, particularly endoscopic investigations. This will be extended from the new year providing further activity.
"Clinics are using a mix of face-to-face, telephone and video appointments where clinically appropriate, in order to meet the patient’s needs. We are also reviewing our theatre service to ensure we maximise capacity and make the best use of our resources, including working routinely at weekends. This will lead to an increase in the number of procedures we undertake within a day case setting.
“We are asking patients not to get in touch with us, as they will be contacted directly about their appointment or surgery by the service, this will prevent congestion in our call centres. It will however take a significant amount of time to get our waiting lists down to pre-Covid levels and unfortunately, many patients will continue to face long waits for treatment for which we again apologise.”
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