EFFORTS to reduce the numbers of Gwent patients who face excessive waits for treatment are fuelling a multi-million pound health board budget deficit.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is so far almost £10 million overspent on this year's budget forecast, and faces a deficit of close to double that amount unless "immediate" action is taken.

And the main contributing factor is spending on scheduled care, such as routine surgery, the focus for this year being is to significantly reduce long waiting times.

Such is the concern at the growing overspend in scheduled care - £7m during the first five months of the financial year - that the plans of each surgical speciality for meeting end-of-year targets to reduce the number of patients waiting longer than 36 weeks for treatment, have been reviewed.

That overspend is predicted to more than double, to £15m, by March 31 next year unless action is taken.

The review has identified opportunities to cut costs, though these have not been made public. But a health board report warns that a "significant financial shortfall" will remain.

The health board is seeking to deliver a three-year plan for running NHS services in Gwent and south Powys, agreed with the Welsh Government.

Part of that plan involves reducing to 1,200 by the end of next March the number of people waiting longer than 36 weeks for treatment.

At the end of August, there were 2,420 people who had waited longer than 36 weeks, around two-thirds of whom were orthopaedic patients.

Meeting the target by March 31 will involve eliminating such waits in all but orthopaedics, but backlog and capacity issues in Gwent hospitals mean the health board is paying for hundreds of orthopaedic and ophthalmology patients to have their operations at a treatment centre in Bristol.

Another part of that agreed three-year plan with the Welsh Government involves a 2016/17 overall budget deficit of no more than £12.8m, towards a goal of breaking even in the third year.

But by August 31 the overspend was £9.83m, with the health board forecasting that it will reach £19.1m by the end of March, if left unchecked.

The other major overspend so far this year is in unscheduled care, which includes emergency departments, at £4.47m.

But this too could more than double without action, while an overspend in mental health of £1.13m could almost triple.