Waiting lists and planned care

Jeremy MilesLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…the fundamental things, I think, have been recognising it's about the size of the list as well as the long waits, because unless you're tackling the size of the list, people are still going to be tipping over into the two-year waits at that scale, aren't they, so you're never going to catch up. That…

Tagged for: “long waits”, “two-year waits”Official Record

Jeremy MilesLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…moment. Probably those two areas, I think, where that's most likely to be needed are in some aspects of orthopaedics—so, spinal surgery cases in particular—and then in ophthalmology, some aspects of that as well. But I think they are limited and narrow specialties.

Tagged for: “orthopaedics”Official Record

Joyce WatsonLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

We're still talking money. We know that some targets—waiting times—are still higher, perhaps, than we would like. So, that being the case, what is your best current estimate of the investment required in the next Senedd to consolidate those gains, which we've clearly made, to avoid a rebound of that…

Tagged for: “waiting times”Official Record

Joyce WatsonLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…by the Welsh Government. More than £1 billion over this Senedd has been invested in NHS recovery and planned care, and there has been further funding added in this year to accelerate reductions in waiting times. So, you started talking about how some of that has been spent—and it has been welcomed…

Tagged for: “planned care”, “waiting times”Official Record

Peter FoxConservative

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

So, following on from that, then, where should that next phase of planned care recovery be focused most to achieve more sustainable reductions in waiting times?

Tagged for: “planned care”, “waiting times”Official Record

Jeremy MilesLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…and then it's able to see more patients, in turn. So, that's the general picture. Obviously, beyond the two-year waits, we want to make sure that people are being seen much more quickly than two years. But having a focus both on the size of the list and on the longest waits is fundamental to getting…

Tagged for: “two-year waits”, “longest waits”Official Record

Jeremy MilesLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Just to be clear, that will have been a 25 per cent increase [Correction: 'decrease'] in the size of the waiting list.

Tagged for: “waiting list”Official Record

Jeremy MilesLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…there. And I'm confident that we will also be able to get to that overall reduction in the size of the waiting list. We're absolutely on track to deliver that as well, and the information that we see in the system, coupled with the resources that we are putting in, show us on track to deliver that…

Tagged for: “waiting list”Official Record

Jeremy MilesLabour

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…I think, at this point, is, for example, a consistent reduction month on month in the size of the waiting list. There has been a lot more central guidance and expectation in relation to how some of that has been driven—and I think that's partly an answer to your question about different ways of…

Tagged for: “waiting list”, “waiting time”Official Record

Peter FoxConservative

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…we really do want to focus down—we've got about 45 minutes, if we can, or somewhere near—on NHS waiting times, because it's something that taxes all of us and our citizens so much. So, although we know that activity has increased in various points, the overall waiting lists in Wales remain…

Tagged for: “waiting times”, “waiting lists”, “waiting list”Official Record

Peter FoxConservative

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary and Minister. That's the end of our first session. We're, obviously, going to be focusing now on NHS waiting times. Just at this point, though, can I formally give John Griffiths's apologies? He can't make it, for unforeseen circumstances, so we'll cover his areas. You…

Tagged for: “waiting times”Official Record

Peter FoxConservative

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Okay. We know that the ministerial advisory group's independent review found that operational performance in key NHS services—planned care, diagnostics, cancer and urgent emergency care—requires a lot of attention and we need to see very swift improvement. So, will the safety plan cover some of…

Tagged for: “planned care”Official Record

Peter FoxConservative

4 February 2026, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Minister for Children and Social Care and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

…inquiry, and some evidence from the Welsh Local Government Association, which highlighted that waiting lists for carers assessments and services were increasing. I just wonder: can you tell us what the data shows in terms of trends in those waiting times? If unpaid carers are telling you things are…

Tagged for: “waiting lists”, “waiting times”Official Record