Long waits for treatments in Wales have fallen by two-thirds in the last four months, the Welsh Government has stated.

The latest figures show by the end of March 2025, waiting times of more than two years have fallen to just under 8,400 – the lowest level since April 2021.

Thousands more treatments and tests have been delivered across NHS Wales due to more evening and weekend appointments, regional working between health boards and renewed efforts to improve access to planned care.

The overall size of the waiting list has also fallen for the fourth month in a row and there were also falls in long waits for outpatient appointments and diagnostic treatments in March 2025.

The Health Secretary invested £50m in health board plans to reduce the longest waiting times for treatment, to increase access to diagnostic tests and outpatient appointments and to cut long waiting times for children’s neurodevelopmental assessments in November 2024.

Management information indicates the additional funding has provided:

  • 5,143 additional treatments over and above core NHS activity
  • 2,160 additional diagnostic tests over and above core NHS activity
  • 6,084 additional outpatient appointments over and above core NHS activity
  • 2,166 additional neurodevelopmental assessments over and above core NHS activity, eliminating three year waiting lists

Health Secretary Jeremy Miles said: “The latest NHS performance figures show long waiting times are now at their lowest levels since April 2021 and the overall size of the waiting list has fallen for four months in a row.

“There are now just under 8,400 people waiting more than two years

“I would particularly like to praise Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda university health boards, which have joined Powys Health Board in having no patients waiting more than a year for a first outpatient appointment or two years for treatment.”

The latest figures also show the best performance against the 62-day cancer target since August 2021, at 63.5%.

Pressure on emergency services continues but performance against the four-hour and 12-hour emergency department target improved in April 2025, compared to the previous month. And more than half of life-threatening 999 ‘red’ calls to the Welsh Ambulance Service were responded to within the eight-minute target time.

Mr Miles added: “Our focus is now on supporting the NHS to continue to eliminate all two-year waits; to reduce the overall waiting list by 200,000 over the course of this year and to restore the maximum eight-week waiting time for diagnostic tests by March 2026.

“This is an ambitious aim and will require hard work over the coming year from everyone in the health service, but I am confident that together we can achieve this.

“I’d like to thank our NHS staff for their hard work getting us to this point.

“Together, we can continue to improve timely access to care for people across Wales.”