Covid: NHS in Wales 'will take years to tackle backlog'

Wales' NHS will take "a number of years" to tackle the backlog caused by the pandemic, according to its boss.

Dr Andrew Goodall said the recovery and providing resources to carry out procedures "quicker and sooner" would be a challenge for whoever formed the next Welsh government.

He said the NHS needed to expand its workforce and infrastructure to deal with waiting lists.

The Welsh Government said the NHS was still delivering high-quality care.

Monthly figures show the number of people waiting for hospital treatment has hit a new record - 541,702.

However, the numbers waiting the longest - more than nine months - fell for the first time since the pandemic began.

There were 221,849 people waiting more than nine months in January - 4,289 fewer than in December.

Those waiting the longest for orthopaedic and trauma surgery rose slightly, to 52,198.

The figures once again show scale of the backlog which has built up after many planned treatments were postponed by the NHS to prioritise Covid and emergency care.

But Dr Goodall, NHS Wales chief executive, said the service had been able to maintain almost twice the level of activity during the second Covid wave compared to the first and hoped the latest figures would show some degree of "stabilisation and recovery".

Dr Goodall admitted long waits were "a very visible public concern" and it would take "some time" to work through the backlog.

He said patients would need to be prioritised on clinical decisions about how urgently they needed to be treated.

He said the NHS had to make the most of the new ways it had developed of working - such as remote consultations - and not simply "revert back to doing things as usual".

He added the health service needed to employ more staff and acquire more facilities and better infrastructure to "take us through the number of years we have ahead of us".

Dr Goodall warned any effort to bring down waiting list was not as simple as "flicking a switch" and that "exhausted" staff would need time to "regather".

He said: "For an incoming government they will need to review what the NHS will need to do but at least we will have a clear framework in place to allow and support any incoming government and ministers about the choices that they will need to make.

"From an NHS perspective there are things we will want to do quicker and sooner but we will want to make sure we have the available resources.

"One of the things I'm really concerned about still is our staff, with everything they've been through over the past 12 months, are exhausted in that they fundamentally supported and protected the Welsh population.

"Trying to go into recovery mode is not just like flicking a switch, it means there has to be some way of allowing staff to regather themselves but I know they will professionally focus on patients to get them through the system."

The Welsh government, which is due to publish an NHS recovery plan early next week, said performance and waiting times continued to be "severely affected" by the pandemic.

"Despite this unprecedented pressure - combined with the normal winter pressures experienced at this time of year - our hardworking health and care staff continue to deliver high-quality care for the public," a spokesman said.

"We have made an extra £30m available this year to support urgent and emergency care services and increase resilience over the remainder of this financial year."