Waiting times for NHS tests and treatment in Wales have been a matter of great concern for sometime, but latest figures have revealed that things are getting even worse.
Official new figures show a significant rise in both the number of people waiting over eight weeks for diagnostic tests and more than 36 weeks for their first hospital appointment.
In fact, the situation is now so bad that one in seven people in Wales are now languishing on a waiting list and the lists are getting longer by the month.
According to the Welsh Government’s most recently published ‘referral to treatment’ times, the total number of people now waiting for an appointment stands at a staggering 435,020 - that's over 200,000 more than when Carwyn Jones became First Minister back in 2009.
And it's not just that more people are waiting; there are also more people waiting for longer. The Welsh Government's target for the number of people waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment is zero yet between April and May alone that figure increased by more than 12% to more than 25,000 people.
Waiting for treatment is inconvenient at best, and can lead to harm or even death at worst. The Auditor General for Wales has highlighted concerns that cardiac patients in Wales have passed away whilst waiting for long periods for surgery and the RNIB has highlighted many cases of people losing their sight whilst awaiting their appointments. Such facts are stark warnings that a failure to invest in tackling overly long waiting times can lead to not only human costs, but it can also lead to preventable and more costly government spending to tackle worse outcomes for patients.
But is is not just access to treatment that is a problem in Wales. The number of people waiting for more than 8 weeks for specified diagnostic services is also out of control. From the end of April to the end of May the numbers rose from 13,111 to 16,490 an increase of more than a quarter.
Early diagnostic tests, such as MRI scans and cystoscopies, are crucial for identifying any underlying health issues or concerns and the ability to diagnose and treat a condition early can greatly affect patient outcomes.
It is concerning therefore that in June, almost one in four patients in Wales who were referred for tests waited longer than the Welsh Government's 8 week target to access them.
Once diagnosed, access to treatment becomes a priority for most patients. But during July, scores of people – newly diagnosed with urgent suspected cases of cancer – had waited for longer than two months to start their treatment in spite of Welsh Government targets that no one should wait more than 62 days.
The 62 target is proving elusive for the Welsh NHS, in fact, it hasn't been met for seven years, yet instead of addressing the problem, the Welsh Government has instead announced changes to the way it measures waiting times for cancer patients. There will now be a new performance measure for cancer services. We saw a similar approach to ambulance response targets, which also weren't being met - they were scrapped too.
So it is clear, too many people are waiting too long for diagnostic tests and treatment in Wales and this is increasing the risk of them coming to harm and having poorer outcomes from treatment; for those involved and their families these delays can be devastating.
But scrapping targets isn't the answer. What we need to see from Welsh Ministers is investment in the NHS so that it can realise the targets which have been set.
Instead, the Wales Audit Office, National Audit Office, the Nuffield Trust, the King's Fund have highlighted that whilst health spending in England has been rising and this has resulted in consequential extra cash to Wales, the Welsh NHS has actually faced the deepest cuts in the UK as a result of Ministers in Cardiff Bay choosing not to spend that cash on our health services.
It is these record-breaking budget cuts which are responsible for patients here waiting so much longer than their counterparts in England for tests and treatments; and it's why hardworking NHS staff are under more pressure than ever before.
Rather than scrapping targets and defending their misguided decision to cut the NHS budget, Welsh ministers must get to grips with our waiting time crisis once and for all by putting their money where their mouths are and paying for the NHS that the people of Wales deserve.