Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care , said:
“I am very happy to see a significant fall in the longest waits
and the overall size of the waiting list falling for the third
month in a row.
“This shows what can be achieved when health boards focus on
delivering services, including faster treatment and increased NHS
capacity, by embracing new ways of working.
“These efforts have been supported by our £50m additional
investment.
“We still have more work to do to reach our ambitious targets,
but it is encouraging to see waiting times consistently falling.
“Two-year waits have fallen to their lowest levels since June
2021 and were more than 26% lower compared to the previous month.
“The number of pathways waiting more than a year for their first
outpatient appointment has fallen for a third consecutive month
and is nearly 28% lower than the peak in August 2022.
“The number of patient pathways waiting 36 weeks and the average
time waiting for treatment were both lower than the previous
month.
“Urgent and emergency care services across Wales continue to be
extremely busy.
“In March there were nearly 5,400 life-threatening ‘red' calls to
the ambulance service, 9% higher than the previous record level
of demand for the month of March.
“Despite this the average response time was less than eight
minutes and over 80% of calls were responded to within 15
minutes.
“The number of patient pathways waiting for diagnostic services
fell compared to the previous month, whilst performance also
improved against the maximum wait target for both diagnostic
tests and therapies services.
“Performance improved against the 62-day cancer target in
February, increasing to more than 60%, whilst 1,800 people
started cancer treatment and 13,000 people were told the good
news they did not have cancer.
“A significant improvement was achieved in March in reducing the
total number of delayed hospital discharges, with a drop by 114
delays over the previous month.
“This was the lowest delay figure over the past year and the
overall second lowest since reporting began two years ago.”
