{"id":157082,"date":"2025-06-04T09:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T09:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/157082\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T09:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T09:03:12","slug":"nhs-wales-to-remove-no-show-patients-from-waiting-lists-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/157082\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS Wales to remove no-show patients from waiting lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"HealthHealth secretary Jeremy Miles<\/p>\n

Patients who miss two appointments without good cause will be removed from waiting lists for NHS treatment, Wales\u2019 health secretary announced.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Miles warned more than 700,000 appointments are missed each year, with 14% of all outpatient appointments lost because people do not turn up or cannot attend.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s not right and it\u2019s not sustainable,\u201d said the Labour politician. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t help us to make sure the public gets faster access to the care they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in future, we will provide patients with two offers of dates for an NHS appointment. If those appointments are not kept without a good reason, they will be removed from the list so that their place can be taken by somebody else.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery person\u2019s circumstance will be considered. Patients who are vulnerable and children will be protected but we want patients to keep their appointments or to cancel in good time so their place can be taken by someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Part of the solution\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Evans, the Conservatives\u2019 shadow health secretary, responded: \u201cI tend to agree with that. We need to make sure the public do actually take a bit more responsibility with their appointments within the NHS but I do urge a little bit of caution.<\/p>\n

\"ConservativeConservative MS James Evans<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just need to make sure\u2026 this policy is not going to unfairly penalise vulnerable people, those who struggle to get transport, especially in Powys, for example, where people have to rely on public transport to get to appointments. It\u2019s not always readily available.<\/p>\n

Mr Evans cautioned that people who struggle with their mental health sometimes cannot go to appointments, with the minister reiterating that vulnerable people will be protected.<\/p>\n

Urging people to do all they can to keep appointments, Mr Miles added: \u201cIt is really important that that capacity is available for patients who are able to take up those appointments. We all want to see access to care becoming faster, and so that\u2019s an important part of the solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a partnership approach between the [Welsh] Government and the NHS on the one hand and the public on the other, and my anecdotal reading of it is that people do understand that that is an important part of the way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Good progress\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a Senedd statement about waiting lists on June 3, Mr Miles stressed that reducing long waits is his number one priority as he pointed to some signs of good progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the waits of more than two years falling by two-thirds,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the end of March, long waits fell to\u2026 just under 8,400. This is the lowest level since April 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe size of the overall waiting list\u00a0had\u00a0reduced for the fourth month in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Miles, who was appointed in September, said the health service will commission the private sector to carry out a significant number of treatments.<\/p>\n

He recognised the problem is most acute in north Wales and emphasised : \u201cI expect the health board to meet its plans to significantly reduce long waits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Baseless targets\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Miles told the Senedd: \u201cWe will reset and reduce the overall size of the list by March 2026, bringing it back towards pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is within our grasp to reduce the size of our waiting list by as much as 200,000 pathways over the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru\u2019s shadow health secretary, warned Welsh ministers have failed to hit their own targets from 2022 despite moving the goalposts multiple times.<\/p>\n

\"PlaidPlaid Cymru MS Mabon ap Gwynfor<\/p>\n

He asked: \u201cWhat measure of success is seeing over 8,000 people waiting over two years\u2026 after promising that no person would be waiting for more than two years by March of 2023?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr ap Gwynfor added: \u201cWith finite resources, we must prioritise the right things, rather than introducing a wide range of baseless targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Fair funding\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

He called for a fair funding settlement for Wales from next week\u2019s UK spending review, saying: \u00a0\u201cThe current system and settlement fail entirely to provide resources in proportion with the needs of Wales: older people, more ill health and greater poverty levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr ap Gwynfor welcomed a recent improvement but pointed out that 600,000 people \u2013 almost one in five of the population \u2013 continues to wait for treatment.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s Hannah Blythyn welcomed positive progress, with two-year waits down 67% over the past three years and more than 12,000 patients coming off the list.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe should be honest here that the progress has been made possible thanks to additional investment made possible by two Labour governments working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rhys ab Owen, an independent, expressed concerns about a shortage of anaesthetists, warning it will ultimately lead to the cancellation of treatments and longer waiting lists.<\/p>\n

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Senedd<\/p>\n

Senedd Cymru<\/p>\n

Senedd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Support quality, independent, local journalism\u2026that mattersFrom just \u00a31 a month you can help fund our work \u2013 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,66616,66617,66618,66619,66620,66621,66622,33595,16,15,1764,14794],"class_list":{"0":"post-157082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-hannah-blythyn-am","11":"tag-icnn-senedd-reporter","12":"tag-james-evans-ms","13":"tag-jeremy-miles","14":"tag-mabon-ap-gwynfor","15":"tag-nhs-wales","16":"tag-rhys-ab-owen","17":"tag-senedd","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales","21":"tag-welsh-government"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114624293396396479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}