Welsh Government urging people to get healthier to cut last-minute op cancellations and wait times

Pamela Blake from Llangennech is currently in the seventh week of the three month programme despite not having a date for her operation.

"If I'd gone for a pre-op they would have never operated on me."

That's the verdict of Pamela Blake from Llangennech. She is now taking part in a scheme to make sure patients are fit and healthy enough for surgery.

Having waited more than three years for a hip operation, and still in the dark about when she will have it done, Pamela only found out she has high blood pressure once she started the programme run by Hywel Dda University Health Board.

With that being the case, she's having to get fitter to bring her blood pressure down, and hopefully get the green light for surgery when her date comes.

The Welsh Government is now announcing a new Wales-wide policy to prepare people on waiting lists through similar projects to get fitter and healthier.

It comes as the latest NHS waiting times, released on Thursday, show the queue of patients waiting for treatment has risen by around 5,200 patients from the previous month.

Pamela Blake from Llangennech only discovered she had high blood pressure after taking up the programme with the health board.

Of those, nearly 230,000 have been waiting nine months or more, with the longest waits for trauma and orthopaedic treatment.

The Welsh Government says unfit patients are making queues for treatment longer.Last year in NHS Wales there were more than 6,000 last-minute procedure cancellations, many due to ill-health.

It's hoped the new measures to get people fitter can bring that figure down, with the NHS already feeling the strain of waiting lists made longer by the pandemic backlog.

Despite the uncertainty of when she will be treated, Pamela is now in the seventh week of the three-month course to get fitter.

She said: "I found out through this programme that I had high blood pressure. So after waiting three years on the waiting list, if I'd gone for a pre-op they would have never operated on me. 

"But now, because of this it's being monitored regularly and hopefully when my time comes, I'll be in a position to have my operation done."

Sharing her frustration over being on a waiting list for several years, Pamela added: "I'm one of these people that give the waiting lists person a ring every four months, and it doesn't seem to get any shorter.

"I think I phoned them just before Christmas and they were still doing people from August 2019. I went on the NHS waiting list in July 2020."

Occupational therapist Catherine Davies said it is important patients do not feel they are "on their own" as they wait for treatment.

There were more than 6,300 last-minute cancellations in Wales between April 2022 and March 2023.

Of those, 4,860 were called off because the patient said they were not fit enough for the procedure, while a further 1,130 were cases where the hospital deemed them unfit due to an acute illness.

Long waits made even longer by cancellations can be demoralising for patients.

Catherine Davies, an occupational therapist with Hywel Dda University Health Board, said: "We realise the waiting list is long, but we want people to know that they're not on their own, and we are here to provide some sort of support for them and ensure people are as fit and healthy as possible for when their surgery does come." 

Health Minister Eluned Morgan said it is important for people to "recognise their responsibility" to be fit for their operation.

Talking about Welsh Government efforts to cut down waiting times, the Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: "We have really challenging waiting lists and so the last thing we want is to waste those opportunities [to treat people] and to have people cancel at the last minute because they're not ready for their operation."

She added: "It's important for people to recognise their responsibility to come with us on this journey."

Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said: “The extremely low rate of reduction in 2-year waits, which have been virtually eliminated elsewhere in the UK, is still unforgivably slow and is completely overshadowed by waits across the board in our Labour-run Welsh NHS worsening, especially given Labour’s abysmal record on cancer treatment."

He added: "The Welsh Conservatives have long been calling for a more rapid roll out surgical hubs and diagnostic centres to get on top of this backlog and to replicate Rishi Sunak’s plan to boost the workforce."

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