NO patient in Gwent is waiting more than 18 months to have orthopaedic treatment. The region's health trust said yesterday it had met the Welsh target to have no long-term patients waiting for orthopaedic treatment by July 31.

But this does not include the number of patients waiting to see a consultant for orthopaedic treatment.

And it comes as new figures show Welsh hospital waiting-lists are at their highest since records began.

The National Assembly required all trusts in Wales to reduce to zero the number of people waiting for more than 18 months.

And following the publication of the quarterly hospital waiting-times figures yesterday, a spokesman for Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust said:

"Despite the immense pressures on beds from the demands of emergency admissions, the targets have been met across the trust's acute hospitals."

The figure for all of Wales was 620, a decline of 56 per cent. Health Minister Jane Hutt (pictured) insisted she was making good progress on orthopaedic waiting-lists.

"Today's figures show the number waiting has again fallen, with the largest monthly fall of 446 since data collection began," she said.

Figures released for Gwent in April this year showed numbers who have waited more than 18 months for hip and knee replacements and other orthopaedic surgery in Gwent were already falling - 40 per cent in a year, from 2,398 to 1,408.

But the number of people waiting for a first out-patient appointment in all of Wales went up 4,139 to 224,944 over June, the highest peak since figures were first collected in March 1997. Those waiting for in-patient or day-case treatment fell by 90 to 71,977 at the end of June.

Ms Hutt recently met her pledge that no patient would have to wait over 12 months for cardiac surgery. But that has now slipped, with five people waiting over a year at the end of June.

Yesterday's figures also show over the three months since the end of March the number of patients waiting more than 12 months for admission to hospital as an in-patient or day case rose by 463 (4.6 per cent) to 10,598.

If tonsillectomies are discounted the rise is just 179. The number waiting more than 18 months fell by 180 (4.4 per cent) to 3,905. The fall is greater - 404 - if tonsillectomies are excluded.

The number of patients waiting over six months for a first out-patient appointment rose by 5,096 (7.4 per cent) to 73,648 over the same period.

And the number of people waiting more than six months for cataract surgery rose by 182 (64 per cent) to 467 over the quarter. The number waiting for more than four months rose by 409 (56 per cent) to 1,145.