NATIONALISTS slammed the Welsh government’s handling of the crisis in Wales’s largest health board today as waiting times increased despite targets to reduce them within six months.

Last October, the Cardiff Bay administration released a special measure priorities report, which outlined its “expectations for improvements to be made over the next six months” by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

They included reducing 52-week waits at the first outpatient stage month on month, improving ambulance handover performance and ensuring that more emergency department patients would be seen within the national waiting time targets of four and 12 hours.