Targets to cut hospital waiting times in Wales are under threat because of a lack of money, NHS finance directors warned today.

Although more cash is being pumped into the service, they warn it will not be enough to meet an Assembly Government pledge that no one should wait more than 26 weeks by December 2009.

In a paper to the Assembly's Finance Committee, NHS chiefs say their budgets are under pressure from rising energy and food prices.

The cost of medicines is likely to continue to grow and new policies have been introduced, such as free parking at hospitals, without extra cash.

The Assembly Government's draft budget, unveiled last week, earmarks £63 million for the 26-week target next year and £54 million for waiting times in 2010/11.

But the finance directors say it amounts to only a 3.1% funding increase, taking the Welsh NHS's budget to about £6 billion when it expects inflation to be around 5.5%.

"The increase in resources will not be sufficient to meet the significant challenges, particularly the delivery of the maximum 26-week total waiting time target,’’ the paper says.

It warns of having to make "difficult choices over service priorities’’.

"The scale of the challenge is such that improvements in the use of resources alone will be insufficient to bridge the shortfall between service pressures and financial growth within hospital and community health services.

"This is likely to lead to a rationalisation of the workforce and of services provided.’’ Despite annual savings of between 1% and 2% over the last five years, "sizeable deficits are currently being experienced in a number of NHS bodies’’.

Other pressures include a legal cut in the number of hours junior doctors can work and the risk of equal pay claims having a "significant impact on resources’’.

Health Minister Edwina Hart's plans to re-organise the health service by doing away with the 22 local health boards and creating bigger NHS trusts should help free up money, it adds.