Welsh Government response to latest NHS Wales performance data – May and June 2023

A Welsh Government spokesperson said:

“The Welsh NHS continues to see very high levels of demand, but there has been further improvement in the performance of emergency care and ambulance response times. The longest waits for treatment also decreased again.

“June saw the best red ambulance performance in 16 months despite the proportion of immediately life threatened calls remaining very high. The proportion of red calls which received an emergency response within eight minutes increased to 54.6 per cent.

“June also saw the best four-hour performance for emergency care facilities recorded for more than two years.

“This was despite the highest levels of attendances per day on record in June, with an average of 3,278 each day.

"Performance against the 12-hour target also improved, while the average time spent in emergency departments was just 2 hours and 37 minutes last month and is now broadly back to pre-pandemic levels.

“It is also encouraging to see a further improvement in ambulance patient handover performance and a reduction in long waits for admission from emergency departments.

“June also saw over 354,000 hits on the NHS 111 Wales website and over 9,600 completed symptom checks.

"Although it is disappointing to see the overall numbers on the waiting list increased in May, the number of two-year waits fell for a fourteenth consecutive month and the average waiting time for treatment also decreased to 19.1 weeks. This was despite the additional bank holiday and industrial action.

“More people started their first definitive cancer treatment in May than the previous month, and the number of pathways closed following the patient being informed they did not have cancer also increased.

“Our dedicated, hard-working staff continue to provide high quality care every day with over 390,000 consultations in secondary care alone in May, not including GP contacts or diagnostics.

“The Minister has set new targets for the health boards to tackle the longest waits and we will continue to support them in improving performance.”