THE number of Gwent patients waiting longer than the maximum 36 weeks for treatment fell slightly during February, a rare improvement in a year characterised largely by unwelcome increases.

A month after the list of patients waiting more than 36 weeks topped 4,000 (4,176), it had fallen by 351 to 3,825 by the end of February, according to the latest Welsh Government figures.

The reduction provides a rare crumb of comfort on the waiting times front for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which was among four of Wales' six health boards that provide acute services to register a fall that month in the number of patients waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment.

The demand for beds created by high numbers of emergency medical patients during an extremely busy winter for the NHS, not only in Gwent but across the rest of Wales, has been one factor driving increases in long waits for treatment, as beds usually earmarked for surgical patients have had to be used to house the former.

Demand remained high in February, indeed into March, combining with ongoing capacity problems in some specialities, which has reduced the number of operations that could be performed.

Helping partially counter these issues in Gwent however, has been a programme of transferring patients out of the area for treatment, with a total of 450 operations - in orthopaedics and ophthalmology - arranged to be carried out during January-March at an NHS treatment centre in Bristol.

The programme was popular among patients and the health board is looking at a repeat during 2015/16 - but sustained progress will only be made in reducing the number of patients waiting longer than 36 weeks by addressing the problems that are restricting capacity in Gwent's hospitals.

The Welsh Government has invested millions of pounds of extra funding to help reduce waiting times, but another key factor in increasing numbers of long waits has been the ongoing squeeze in core funding that has restricted health boards' efforts to keep pace with waiting times targets.

In February 2012, while 420 Gwent patients were waiting longer than 36 weeks for treatment outside of Gwent, none were waiting beyond that time to be treated in a hospital in Gwent.

By February 2013 however, there were 724 patients who had waited more than 36 weeks for treatment in a Gwent hospital, and by February 2014 the figure was 1,605. That it has doubled again in the past year is an indication of the ongoing difficulties, despite the most recent reduction.