‘Four years to return hospital waits to pre-Covid levels’

HOSPITAL waiting lists could take at least four years to return to the level they were at before the Covid-19 pandemic when numbers were falling, Wales’ Health Minister has said.

The Welsh Government last week revealed plans to manage a backlog of appointments and treatments, which has built up since the beginning of the outbreak more than two years ago.

There were 691,885 patients on the waiting list in Wales in February, with more than a quarter of a million (251,647) of them on it for nine months or more.

Eluned Morgan announced a raft of measures aimed at cutting waiting times for people with non-urgent conditions

The plan will result in an extra £60m being given to health boards over the next four years, increasing the amount committed to help the Welsh NHS recover from the pandemic to around £1billion.

Ms Morgan said: “Despite all of the pandemic pressures, the NHS has made huge efforts to increase planned care.

“But it will take at least four years to return to prepandemic levels of activity, when waiting times were falling, and to do this we need to make some changes. We also need to invest in equipment, new facilities and to keep on investing in our greatest assets, our NHS staff, so we can diagnose and treat people more quickly.”

However, opposition parties have claimed the proposals do not go far enough, with the Welsh Conservatives describing them as “unambitious”.

Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for health and care, Ynys Môn MS Rhun ap Iorwerth, said it was important targets are met.

He said: “What the NHS in Wales needs is a plan that looks at every aspect of the patient journey through the health and care sector.

“This has to start with increased focus on prevention, and must include plans to quickly support those patients who need care packages after hospital treatment, to free up beds in hospitals.

“It’s also not clear if government are taking any additional steps to address the severely depleted workforce across health and care.”