Long waiting times for treatment on rise again

The increase was small - up 75 to 2,267 - but comes after such waits had been almost halved during the first six months of 2016.

Orthopaedics was the major contributor to the increase, though it was offset by further, albeit small, reductions in long waits in other specialties.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is working towards eliminating waits of longer than 36 weeks in all specialties except orthopaedics by the end of the March, as part of a longer term plan to get rid of them altogether.

Encouraging progress has been made in some of these other specialties.

Waits of more than 36 weeks in ophthalmology have more than halved since last December, to 566 in July, the latter representing a small decrease on the June figure, and the seventh successive monthly fall.

Another area where huge progress has been made in tackling waits of more than 36 weeks - albeit over a longer period - is in oral surgery.

In July 2014 there were around 650 patients who had been waiting longer than 36 weeks.

Much of the backlog was tackled within a year, and as of July this year, there were no such waits in this specialty.

Waits of more than 36 weeks topped 100 in gynaecology last December, but were down in single figures in July, while such waits in gastroenterology were down to 19 in July, having been at 69 in June.

Small monthly increases in long waits were recorded in general surgery and in ENT (ear, nose and throat) during July, but the longer term trend in these specialties has been down.

That progress in bringing down long waits slows in July and August is not unusual, given that this is the holiday season, and capacity tends to be lower.

The aim now will be to make further progress on reducing waits of more than 36 weeks during the late summer and autumn.

The health board’s winter plan meanwhile, will seek to minimise disruption to routine surgery sessions, with a degree of ring-fencing of surgical beds built-in where possible.