The Welsh Government's cabinet secretary for health and social care has spoken in response to the latest NHS Wales figures.

Eluned Morgan MS said: "Despite significant demand on our NHS and some disruption from industrial action NHS staff have worked tirelessly to deliver high-quality care and continue to reduce long waiting times."

Using data from the health boards, Ms Morgan highlighted sustained efforts to reduce lengthy waits and improvements in diagnostics, with six of the seven health boards hitting the 97 per cent target for wait times of less than 104 weeks.

Despite these successes, she admitted there remained issues of concern such as the overall increase in the waiting list size, and the disappointing performance against the cancer target.

The cabinet secretary also expressed concerns about the elevated demand on emergency services, citing record highs for emergency department attendances and hospital admissions.

She concluded: "I’m disappointed to see long stays in emergency departments have increased.

"I expect health boards to renew their focus on reducing long stays in emergency departments, particularly for frail and older people."

Ms Morgan asserted that work was still required to improve waiting times and that this was a key area for focus moving forward.