Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care , said:
“We have made tackling long waiting times our priority and today
I'm announcing an extra £28m to help health boards cut the
longest waits.
“This new funding will pay for more evening and weekend
appointments, high volume clinics and regional working to target
the longest waits in specialties such as orthopaedics,
ophthalmology, general surgery and gynaecology.
“These interventions will have a significant impact for people
waiting for treatment, tests and outpatient appointments and I
look forward to seeing these monthly referral to treatment time
figures improve as today's investment is reflected in NHS
performance.
“Despite record levels of demand across the sector, today's
figures show some progress in both diagnostics and therapies, as
well as performance against the 62-day cancer target increasing
to 56.5%.
“Urgent and emergency care services continue to be under great
pressure, with the second highest daily numbers of ‘red'
(immediately life threatening) calls reported on record and
sustained pressure at emergency departments.
“However, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust responded to the
second highest number of people in the red category in eight
minutes on record.
“And although activity at emergency care facilities remains close
to record levels, admissions to hospital were more than 5% lower
than at the same time last year, suggesting plans to support more
people to avoid a stay in hospital are having an impact.
“We recognise more work needs to be done to support people with
urgent care needs in the community and to improve timeliness of
discharge home to help reduce long stays in ambulances and in
emergency departments themselves.
“Our Help Us to Help You campaign supports people to get the
right care at the right time from the right service.”
