WAITING lists for NHS treatment in Wales have shrunk slightly but are still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Health minister Eluned Morgan said she was “pleased” the health service had “made some headway in planned care” but acknowledged “the pressures we have seen on our NHS have still not eased”.

Opposition parties have been more critical, with the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru accusing the Welsh Government of “mismanagement”.

Here’s what the new figures show:

Waiting lists for treatment

The size of NHS waiting lists for treatment fell slightly in February to 731,000, marking the fifth month in a row that number have gone down, albeit slightly.

This is larger than the number of people on waiting lists, because some patients may be scheduled to begin several types of treatment.

The government said the pandemic “caused a large increase in patient pathways waiting to start treatment”.

In Gwent, waiting lists for treatment are currently 127,000-strong, a nearly 50 per cent increase from February 2020, the month before the first Covid restrictions were introduced.

Ambulance response times

Nationally, March saw the Welsh Ambulance Service record the second-worst performance for responding to the most serious callouts, so-called “red” calls, since comparable records began.

The government target is for paramedics to reach 65 per cent of those callouts within eight minutes, but in March the service only managed to arrive in that timeframe in 47.5 per cent of cases.

Ambulance response times have suffered since the beginning of the pandemic and the government said it was “important to note that over the same period there has been a significant increase in the volume of red calls received”.

Paramedics in the Gwent area were the best performing in Wales last month, reaching 52 per cent of “red” callouts within eight minutes.

A&E departments

The number of people attending A&E in Wales increased last month compared with February, with nearly 2,900 patients arriving on an average day.

The government target is for 95 per cent of patients to be admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E within four hours of arrival, and for no patients to wait more than 12 hours.

But nationally, only 69. 5 per cent of patients were seen in less than four hours in March, and 88.7 per cent were seen within 12 hours.

In Gwent, just 51.8 per cent of patients at the only A&E department, at the Grange University Hospital, were seen in four hours, but the figures for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s minor injuries units were much higher, at 95.6 per cent.

The health board treated 80 per cent of A&E patients at the Grange within 12 hours and 99.7 per cent of patients at its minor injury units.