THE number of patients in Gwent waiting beyond the maximum 26-week referral-to-treatment time fell by a quarter during April, the latest figures reveal.

In an encouraging start to what promises to be an extremely busy and challenging year for surgeons and surgical teams, the number of 26-week target breaches fell from 863 to 649.

No patients should wait beyond 26 weeks, though there is leeway built into the NHS Wales target system for a small percentage of cases to wait up to 36 weeks, to allow for complex treatments and potential complications.

In Gwent, treatment delays last year meant hundreds of orthopaedic cases waited over 36 weeks, and the service was put into special measures by the Welsh Government.

But these cases have now been cleared and special measures lifted - and all non-orthopaedic cases that had waited more than 36 weeks have now been dealt with too.

Wales-wide, the onus is on getting back to a situation where no patients wait more than 26 weeks, except for that small percentage of complex cases.

Demand for orthopaedic treatment - the specialty accounts for by far the most actual and potential 36-week breaches across Wales, not just in Gwent - means that the 26-week target is unlikely to be met in any sustainable way until 2012/13.

But the April figures for Gwent will have pleased Aneurin Bevan Health Board bosses, not least because they were achieved in a month with three Bank Holidays.

They also buck a year-on-year trend that usually brings rising numbers of waiting times target breaches at the start of a new financial year, following extra efforts toward the end of the previous one to meet targets.