Welsh Government response to latest NHS Wales performance data: May and June 2024

The Welsh Government has responded to the latest NHS performance data published today. A spokesperson said:

Our incredibly hard-working NHS staff continue to provide life-saving and life-changing care in the face of incredible demand for its services.

More than 14,250 people were told the good news that they do not have cancer in May – an incredible number. It is pleasing to see performance improved against the 62-day target too.

The number of immediately life-threatening (red) 999 calls to the ambulance service made each day was the second highest on record, and the proportion of these calls was the highest recorded.

This level of demand – a 28% increase compared to the same month in 2023 – means it is increasingly tough to meet the target response times, but even so there was an improvement in June and almost eight out of 10 calls received a response within 15 minutes.

Performance against the 12-hour target for emergency departments improved slightly in June and the majority of people were discharged, admitted or transferred less than two hours and 50 minutes.

The number of emergency admissions decreased by 5.6% this month – a further indication that work through our national Six Goals programme to care for people closer to home is having an impact.

But overall this is another disappointing set of NHS performance figures.

The waiting list has grown again and, after 24 months of consecutive falls, the number of people waiting more than two years for treatment has increased for the second month in a row.

The Health Secretary has made it clear to health boards that she expects to see progress – and sustained progress – to reduce long waits and waiting times for treatments. She will be making it clear to the leadership of health boards today that the situation is not acceptable and must improve.

There is still a way to go to reduce the backlog, which built up during the pandemic. But the NHS continues to deliver an enormous amount of activity for a population of 3m people – since April 2022, more than 2.5m patient pathways have been closed at an average of 103,000 a month.