NHS Wales: Ten-fold increase in patients waiting for treatment

At least 49,000 patients in Wales had been waiting for more than a year for NHS treatment in September, according to new figures.

For six out of the seven health boards, the figures also show at least half of those were awaiting surgery.

It represents a 10-fold increase for all treatments compared to September 2019.

The Welsh Government said "difficult decisions" were made to cancel surgery due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The figures, obtained by BBC Wales Investigates under the Freedom of Information Act, showed there were more than 18,000 people waiting for any kind of treatment at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

That is double the number at the Swansea Bay and Cwm Taf Morgannwg health boards, which both had 9,000 patients waiting.

Swansea Bay had the most waiting for surgery - 7,801 - with Betsi Cadwaladr just behind on 7,620.

Figures for the Cardiff and Vale health board have not been included as its data is not comparable.

Former B&B owner Gaye Moran, 74, from Llandudno has been waiting for vascular and hip surgery for more than 19 months.

She said she was placed on the "priority list" for both a hip and a vascular operation in March 2019, after problems with a previous hip operation caused her a lot of pain.

She was ready for surgery just as the pandemic struck.

"It's despairing me," she said.

"I can't just put it to one side and leave it because it's there all the time, I can't get away from it, and you just think 'oh please give me a date for an operation'."

Ms Moran said she had great admiration for the job the NHS was doing, but not knowing when her operations may happen, and news that waiting list backlogs may take years to clear, were leaving her anxious.

"This lockdown doesn't help because you dwell on things," she added.

"As soon as Covid is done, we need to show the same type of impetus with backlogs as we have with the Nightingale hospitals and pandemic response."

Ms Moran is now one of 7,620 people who have been waiting more than a year in the Betsi Cadwaladr area.

The health board said elective surgery capacity was currently at about 60%, but pain management services were considered "essential" and had been maintained.

Its acting deputy chief executive, Teresa Owen, said she "fully recognised" it was a worrying time for those waiting for treatment.

"In the short term, we are looking at performing more outpatient appointments and theatres activity over the evenings and weekends," she said.

"We are also working to introduce modular buildings away from acute hospital sites, from which diagnostic tests, endoscopies and day case surgery can be performed."

Health Minister Vaughan Gething said there were "no easy choices" in dealing with both the pandemic and other NHS services.

"Because the choices we've made, it's undoubtedly the case we'll see poorer outcomes and that does mean more people having avoidable disability, more people potentially losing their lives with non-Covid care," he said.

"But if we did nothing, we know that in the middle of March, we could have been like northern Italy was... the health service was overrun, we wouldn't have been able to expand that critical care capacity."

Senedd Conservative health spokesman Andrew RT Davies said: "Regrettably, waiting list targets were being missed before the pandemic started with the Welsh Labour-led government consistently letting down patients.

"Coronavirus has led to NHS waiting lists growing longer but the pandemic has only put a spotlight on how bad things were before, and all we get from Labour's health minister is excuses."

BBC Wales Investigates: The Hidden Cost of Covid is available on the BBC iPlayer