PRESS RELEASE : NHS waiting lists hiding 400,000 Welsh patients in need of follow-up care [November 2022]

The press release issued by Welsh Conservatives on 9 November 2022.

Over 400,000 people are on “hidden” waiting lists for NHS care in Wales, Welsh Conservative research has found.

The equivalent of 1-in-5 people in Wales are on an NHS waiting list, which includes those who have been referred by GPs for hospital treatment such as cataract or hip and knee surgery.

However, freedom of information responses to the Welsh Conservatives, released by health boards, found 401,342 further patients in need of follow-up care –– up from a still significant 383,890 in March 2020 when coronavirus struck.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said:

“The fact that 1-in-5 people in Wales are on a waiting list, with 1-in-4 of those waiting over a year for NHS treatment is already shocking enough – now we discover that 400,000 are waiting for follow-up care, greater than the population Cardiff, with 96% of that number accounted for before Covid.

“We regularly get excuses from the Labour Government about how difficult tackling the backlog is, but while this is certainly a challenge, we have seen two-year waits eliminated in England and Scotland but number tens of thousands here.

“It is becoming clearer by the day, with every shocking story of someone’s dreadful experience in A&E, in the back of ambulance, or on a waiting list that the failure to prepare for the aftermath of the pandemic has come at a great cost to the well-being of both patients and healthcare.

“Labour need to get a grip on the NHS, stop breaking all the wrong records, and end the cost-of-pain crisis.”

Swansea Bay Health Board (HB) has 138,330 people on its secondary waiting lists, more than any other part of Wales. North Wales’ beleaguered Betsi Cadwaladr HB saw the largest increase since Covid hit the UK, with an increase of 24% in that time (from 46,767 to 57,769).

Cardiff & Vale HB was the only one to manage a reduction in their secondary waiting list numbers, although it still has the third longest secondary list. Hywel Dda HB, covering the three counties of Dyfed, and Powys HB failed to provide any figures.

1-in-4 patients in Wales on an NHS waiting list are waiting over a treatment, and there are enormous doubts that the Labour Government will end one-year waits by the end of the year. 59,000 patients are waiting over two years in Wales but have been eliminated in England and Scotland.