GWENT'S hospitals are making headway in their bid to cut the number of patients waiting more than 26 weeks for treatment.

The number of patients in Gwent waiting more than 26 weeks for treatment following referral from their GP continued to fall during the summer.

By the end of August, according to the latest figures, 506 of those treated that month had waited more than 26 weeks.

By December 31, no-one in Wales should be waiting longer than 26 weeks between referral and treatment, be the latter through an operation or through alternative means, such as physiotherapy as an outpatient.

The new maximum 26-week RTT (Referral to Treatment Time) has been a long term target and has involved health bodies such as the former Gwent Healthcare Trust, now replaced by the Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board, drawing up new methods of tracking patients through the system.

In Gwent, the August figure for patients waiting more than 26 weeks compared favourably with the 759 from the end of July and the 1,081 from the end of June.

But more than 4,000 fewer treatments were carried out in the area’s hospitals during August than in the previous month due to the summer holidays, and the new LHB’s bosses will be hoping the downward trend continues into the busier autumn period.

The new system of patients’ pathways through the system, has meant an old waiting times procedure, that of measuring component waits such as first outpatient appointments and waits for diagnostics tests and subsequent treatment, has been relaxed.

This has meant that in many cases, patients have waited longer than they might usually expect at certain stages, but the overall aim remains to get them to a definitive treatment inside 26 weeks.