North Wales has worst children’s hospital waits, minister tells Senedd
Children waiting the longest for hospital treatment in Wales are concentrated in north Wales, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has told MSs.
Jeremy Miles was giving evidence to the Children, Young People and Education Committee on Wednesday in the final ministerial scrutiny session of the current Senedd term.
“There’s obviously a geographic challenge as well in terms of where the longest waits are still to be found, and they are very largely in north Wales,” Mr Miles said.
“Those challenges remain to be resolved, but the overall picture is of a system getting back into balance, which will then mean that the progress we have seen will be able to continue.”
Mr Miles told the committee that the number of children waiting over two years for treatment had fallen from around 5,040 in April 2022 to 366 as of December 2024. The number waiting more than 52 weeks for a first out-patient appointment had been cut from around 6,800 to around 3,200.
“The biggest reduction, which I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to manage, and which has taken a huge amount of effort, obviously, across the health service, is a 92 per cent, almost a 93 per cent, reduction in the numbers waiting for more than two years,” he said.
Ear, nose and throat waits account for the largest share of the remaining long waits. Four other specialties — ophthalmology, oral surgery, dentistry and orthopaedics — each have fewer than 50 patients still waiting over two years, Mr Miles said.
Russell George MS (Conservative, Montgomeryshire) told the committee he had heard that Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board had recently appointed two new ENT professionals. “Which is a relief,” Mr George said, “so hopefully that will impact there.”
Mr Miles acknowledged ENT as the area of greatest remaining pressure. He said some parts of the health service had now recovered to a point where performance is better than before the pandemic, while longer waits in other specialties have proved more stubborn.
Mr George also pressed the cabinet secretary on whether specific waiting time targets should exist for community paediatrics.
Mr Miles said there are currently no such targets, and that resources for reducing waits in community settings had so far focused primarily on mental health. His personal view, he said, was against adding further targets to what he described as an already “bewildering plethora.”
Asked whether progress on paediatric waiting times would continue after May’s Senedd election, Mr Miles said he would not be returning to the health brief.
He told MSs that whoever takes on the role would be “inheriting a system that is getting back into balance” and a “much more sustainable position” than existed at the start of the term.
He added that the overall children’s waiting list stood at around 54,400 pathways, roughly 8 per cent lower than its peak, and that the geographic challenge in north Wales “remains to be resolved.” He offered no timeline.
The committee also heard that data on children in Wales receiving treatment from providers outside Wales is not currently available. Mr Miles offered to supply the figures to the committee if they exist.
The session was chaired by Carolyn Thomas MS (Labour, North Wales), standing in for the committee’s regular chair, Buffy Williams MS, who was absent.
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