PLAID CYMRU and Labour engaged in a war of words after cancer treatment figures for Wales were published today.

Labour hailed the biggest monthly reduction in the waiting list, as the average time spent awaiting treatment shrank to its shortest in almost six years.

But Plaid highlighted that more than half a million of Wales’s people remain on NHS waiting lists, with 5,000 still waiting over two years despite Labour’s previous promises to end two-year waits altogether.

The latest figures show the average waiting time for treatment is now around 18 weeks, down from 23 weeks in August 2024 and the lowest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Labour.

They also show that the biggest monthly fall in the waiting list took place in January this year, down by 27,900, with a further fall in waits of more than two years.

Welsh Health Secretary Jeremy Miles said: “This set of record-breaking figures show just how hard the NHS is working. 

“The waiting list has fallen for the eighth month in a row, a new record reduction, and the longest waits are down yet again. This is real, tangible progress for people in Wales.”

Plaid Cymru health and social care spokesman Mabon ap Gwynfor said: “Over half a million of the Welsh population remain on a NHS waiting lists, with 5,000 still waiting over two years, despite Labour’s previous promises to remove two-year waits altogether. 

“This, alongside the fact that only 57 per cent of cancer patients begin treatment within two months, reflects Labour’s failing record when it comes to the NHS. It isn’t good enough.”