First Minister says two-year NHS waits should be gone within a year

First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has said waits of more than two years for planned NHS treatment in Wales should be eliminated within a year of his government taking office.

Speaking in the Senedd on Tuesday, he said the most extreme waits had to be removed and that waits beyond two years should be gone a year after the government came into office. That points to about May 2027, although he did not give a specific calendar date.

More than 4,000 pathways

The latest confirmed Welsh Government figures recorded 4,208 patient pathways waiting longer than two years in May and 4,082 in June. A pathway is not the same as a person because one patient can have more than one open route to treatment.

The whole treatment list stood at 698,390 pathways in June, representing about 547,500 individual patients. The number waiting more than two years had fallen from May but remained above the 2,589 recorded in March.

The money behind the promise

The Welsh Government has attached £145 million to its NHS reforms. Of that, £100 million is for reducing waiting times, £25 million is for surgical and diagnostic hubs and £20 million is for maintenance.

The government says up to 10 hubs will be developed. The First Minister told the Senedd that work had begun, but the answer did not publish a health-board breakdown showing how the two-year waits would be cleared month by month.

What can now be measured

The within-a-year statement gives the public a clearer point against which to test progress. The next confirmed waiting-time releases will show whether the number beyond two years is falling quickly enough to reach it.