Plaid promises surgery centres to cut NHS waits

Plaid Cymru would look to set up at least one surgical hub in every Welsh health board area if it wins the Senedd election next year.

The hubs, which separate surgery from emergency care and allow operations to go ahead even if hospitals face high demand, form part of the party's plans – published on Tuesday - to try and cut record NHS waiting times.

One already exists in Port Talbot, with two more planned for Llandudno, Conwy county, and Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The Welsh government said progress had been made in efforts to reduce the longest waiting times.

The party said it would also create a new unit between GP and consultant-led care to reassess whether patients needed to be on a waiting list or whether other treatment was available.

Plaid would also bring in a legal duty on health boards to co-operate on finding capacity for appointments.

The NHS is likely to be one of the main battlegrounds ahead of the Senedd election in May 2026 and it is the number one priority of Welsh Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan.

Opposition parties are likely to attack Labour for its record on the NHS.

Plaid Cymru's health spokesman Mabon ap Gwynfor said: "Despite the first minister making tackling waiting lists her priority, over 600,000 people in Wales are still waiting for NHS treatment. It should not be this way."

Speaking later, at a news conference, Ap Gwynfor said his party's proposals would make a difference "within the first year".

"When some of these steps were implemented in areas of Wales, with dermatology for example, we've seen waiting lists fall by 60%," he said.

"With physical treatments – bones for example – waiting lists have fallen by 30%, so it would have quite an impact in the short-term."

Ap Gwynfor said it is estimated that 60% of children on waiting lists "don't actually need to be there".

The Welsh government said: "NHS Wales works hard to deliver high quality care and progress has been made to reduce the longest waiting times for treatment."

It said it had invested an additional £50m to support health boards and an extra £600m had been allocated to health and social care in its draft budget.

It added two-year waits had fallen by two-thirds since their peak in the Covid pandemic and the average wait time from referral to treatment had dropped from 29 weeks to 23 weeks.