THE new health secretary says he will 'champion and challenge' NHS Wales in a bid to cut down on hospital waiting times.

New cabinet secretary for health, Jeremy Miles, has said he will “champion and challenge” NHS Wales, as the latest performance data on health board performance is released today (Thursday, September 19).

Jeremy Miles said: “The public have told us they want to see waiting times come down and they want faster access to care and treatment.

“For the first time today, a new statistical report will be published setting out individual health boards’ performance against a range of NHS measures.  

“I will be visiting the breast cancer centre of excellence at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr today to see how Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is improving cancer care.

“I want to champion all the good work the NHS is doing in Wales but I will also challenge organisations to learn from where others are performing well and share good practice as we work together to cut waiting times.”

Earlier this week, First Minister Eluned Morgan and her cabinet announced that one of their top priorities in the Senedd will be to cut NHS waiting times.

At the end of August, hospital waiting lists in Wales hit a record high.

Official figures for June show 615,341 patients were waiting for 791,511 treatments to take place – both the highest numbers on record.

The estimated number of people waiting for treatment is up by 12% since March 2022.