The Welsh Government has responded to the latest NHS performance data published today (March 21st).
A Welsh Government spokesperson said:
For the third month in a row the overall waiting list number has come down.
The number of pathways waiting more than two years for treatment also fell again, for the 22nd consecutive month.
This is a remarkable achievement by our hard-working NHS staff considering it included a period of industrial action as well as the usual pressures on the system seen in January.
Average response times to immediately life-threatening (red) calls were 10 seconds faster when compared to the previous month, with 80% receiving a response in 15 minutes.
The proportion of red calls was the joint third highest on record. We expect to see health boards improve ambulance patient handover performance as a priority to support more timely ambulance responses.
The average time patients waited for triage and then to be assessed by a clinician in emergency departments was 18 and 58 minutes respectively.
We have challenged health boards to make improvements on these and other key measures as part of our new 'Quality statement for care in emergency departments', published last week.
It is also pleasing to see more people started their first treatment for cancer in January than the previous month, and more people being told they don’t have cancer.
The average waiting time for treatment also improved, while the number of patient pathways waiting for diagnostics and therapies each fell for a third consecutive month.
It is disappointing to see one-year waits for a first outpatient appointment increase again however.
February also saw an increase in the total number of pathways of care discharge delays compared to the previous month, which reflects the difficulties of the impacts of winter pressures on both our health and social care sectors. Although the total for Wales has increased we have also seen some encouraging improvements within some regions in Wales.
There remains much more to do, but we are encouraged by the direction in which the major statistics are trending.