Wales NHS: Prioritise patients waiting longest - minister

Health Minister Eluned Morgan: "We don't have the money to spend on the NHS that we'd like"

The NHS in Wales needs to "speed up the process" of treating people waiting over two years for hospital treatment, the health minister said.

Eluned Morgan said health boards need to prioritise the "longest waiters and they're not always doing that".

There are 59,350 people waiting over two years in Wales, although the number has fallen for a fifth month in a row.

The Welsh NHS Confederation, which represents NHS health organisations, has been asked to comment.

In Wales, there are 183,450 operations and procedures waiting more than a year.

Overall waits - from referral to treatment - have passed 750,000.

Scotland has 7,650 patients waiting more than two years, England has 2,646.

Asked on BBC Politics Wales why so many more people are waiting longer in Wales, Ms Morgan said: "Our health boards need to make sure that they're taking people from the longest waiters and they're not always doing that."

• The numbers behind record long hospital waits

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Dairy farm worker Stewart Rathbone lost his job and home as he was unable to work due to needing a hip replacement

Surgery wait 'destroyed me' financially

Stewart Rathbone from Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, has been waiting for more than two years for a hip replacement.

The 58 year-old used to work on a dairy farm, which provided a house for his family to live in.

Unable to work because of his deteriorating hip, Mr Rathbone lost his job and had to move home.

"Financially, it destroyed me. As a family, it totally destroyed us," he said.

"If I'd had the operation at the outset... what happened to my family wouldn't have happened.

"I'd be probably still working on the same farm."

In the Senedd last week, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies raised incidents of people who had to wait hours for an ambulance, prompting an angry response from First Minister Mark Drakeford.

The case of Keith Morris, 79, who was left in pain on the floor for 15 hours while waiting for an ambulance, was one of those raised.

His daughter, life-long Labour voter, Andrea Morris Nicholas, told Politics Wales she was "disappointed" with Mr Drakeford's reaction, adding "he has to take responsibility".

Asked if the first minister and Welsh government accepted responsibility, Ms Morgan told Politics Wales: "We're responsible for running the NHS.

"I think what's important for people to understand is that we're limited by budgets.

Ms Morgan said 350 extra ambulance workers have been recruited

"So, that means we don't have the money to spend on the NHS that we'd like to have at a time when demand is going through the roof.

"We've already recruited an additional 250 ambulance workers, we've got another 100 coming on line.

"They'll be ready by December... so, a bit later than we'd hoped, but had we not started that recruitment campaign back in April, we wouldn't be ready."

'That's my job'

Mr RT Davies told the programme the first minister's reaction in the Senedd - when Mr Drakeford accused the Conservatives of making a mess of the UK's finances and reputation - "was beyond reprehensible".

"I had the temerity as the leader of the opposition to turn up, point out two particular cases of individuals...who had to wait excessive times for ambulances to arrive," said Mr RT Davies.

"Now, that's my job, but for the first minister to try and deflect like he did on to the UK government really shows that the Welsh Labour government have run out of answers.

"Yes, the cash does come from Westminster, but it's up to the devolved governments to decide how they carve that up.

"In the early parts, 2010 to 2015, the Welsh Labour government, the only government in the United Kingdom, voted to cut their NHS budget whereas all other governments - whether it be a nationalist government in Scotland, a Conservative government in Westminster or an executive in Northern Ireland - protected the health budget.

"So, in there are the seeds of the problem that we are facing today," he added.