Monmouth Senedd Member Peter Fox has hit out at the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay, saying there is little to celebrate in these latest health statistics.

While there has been some improvements in number of people waiting more than two years for treatment, the figures are simply not good enough.

The latest NHS statistics for Wales revealed NHS treatment waiting lists remain at 794,543 pathways, the equivalent of nearly one-in-four Welsh people.

Performance worsened against the 62-day target for patients starting cancer treatment, decreasing to 60.2 per cent and the new 90th percentile response time for red calls was beyond the 20-minute target.

The disparity in two-year NHS waits for treatment between Wales and England is still large, with NHS Wales two-year waits standing at 7,447, compared with 182 in England.

The Labour Health Minister, now First Minister, Eluned Morgan promised to eliminate these waits for the last two years (by March 2023 and again by March 2024), but failed to meet these targets and still has not.

Commenting on the news, Local MS Peter Fox said: “These statistics are still incredibly concerning and are very little reason to celebrate.

“It is clear that the First Minster has continued to miss her own targets when it comes to NHS waiting times.

“Unlike Labour, the Welsh Conservatives would deliver one year-maximum waiting times for treatment and a seven-day GP wait guarantee.

“We would treat this matter with the urgency it deserves, declaring a health emergency and using the full force of the Government to provide the healthcare that the people of Wales deserve.”

Responding to the latest NHS Wales Cancer Waiting Times figures, Rhian Stangroom-Teel, External Affairs Manager for Wales at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “While there have been some improvements in cancer waiting times since last year, this data lays bare that over 4,600 people in Wales waited too long to start crucial cancer treatment in the first half of this year. We know that the earlier cancer is diagnosed and treated can make a huge difference to people's chances of survival and their quality of life after treatment. It is unacceptable that thousands of people across Wales have waited too long for care they urgently need.

“With the Senedd elections looming, people living with cancer need the Welsh Government to make cancer a priority and tackle the promises in the Cancer Improvement Plan. People’s postcode or background cannot continue to determine the quality of the healthcare they receive.”

Macmillan’s analysis of the latest official NHS data shows that performance against the national cancer waiting times target in Wales was worse in June compared with May, but slightly better than in June last year. The target was still missed by a substantial margin, showing NHS cancer services in Wales remain under intense pressure.

Other recent analysis by Macmillan shows people who lived in the most deprived areas of Wales in 2024 were over 1.5 times more likely to die from cancer than people who lived in the least deprived areas after adjusting for age even though the overall cancer mortality rate has fallen over two decades.