Welsh NHS Two-Year Waiting List Falls by 26% but Challenges Persist

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The number of Welsh NHS patients waiting more than two years for treatment has decreased by 26%, according to data released by the Welsh Government on April 17, 2025. Despite this improvement, the overall NHS treatment waiting list in Wales remains high at 793,946 patient pathways.

In Wales, 15,005 patients are waiting over two years for treatment, a figure starkly higher than England’s 161 patients. The Labour Health Minister, now First Minister Eluned Morgan, had pledged to eliminate two-year waits by March 2023 and again by March 2024 but has not met these targets, which remain distant goals.

Jeremy Miles, the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, expressed satisfaction with the recent reductions in long waits and the overall waiting list size, noting this marks the third consecutive month of decline. He attributed progress to health boards focusing on faster treatment and expanding NHS capacity, supported by an additional £50 million investment.

Two-year waits have fallen to their lowest since June 2021 and are over 26% lower than the previous month. Additionally, the number of pathways waiting more than a year for first outpatient appointments has decreased for three months in a row, nearly 28% below the August 2022 peak. Improvements were also seen in cancer treatment performance, with over 60% meeting the 62-day target in February, and a significant reduction in delayed hospital discharges in March, reaching the lowest figure in the past year.

However, ambulance waiting times have worsened, and A&E departments continue to face severe pressure. Furthermore, many specialties, including orthopaedic care, are excluded from the waiting time data, and Wales still lags behind England, which has eliminated two-year waits.

James Evans MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, criticized the Labour government for failing to meet targets, highlighting the persistence of two-year waits and deteriorating ambulance response times. He called for removing barriers to cross-border and cross-sector capacity sharing and urged the implementation of a long-term workforce plan to improve NHS performance across Wales.

In summary, while there has been measurable progress in reducing the longest NHS waiting times in Wales, significant challenges remain, particularly compared to England’s performance and ongoing pressures in emergency services