LONG waits for treatment for Gwent patients increased in December, the latest figures show, as the tax and pension issues that have been causing consultants to cut back on extra work continued to affect the amount of patients being seen.

The issue is a UK-wide one that has dragged on since last summer, and it has led to rising numbers of patients in Wales waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment, from the point of referral.

By the end of December - an extremely busy month for the NHS in Wales, in which emergency pressures that had continued through the autumn also disrupted treatment plans - 1,492 patients in Gwent had been waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment.

This was an increase of 81 on the November figure - but since last March, when just 110 patients had been waiting longer than 36 weeks for treatment in Gwent, the numbers have risen sharply as a whole, with just a couple of small but unsustained monthly reductions.

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Orthopaedics (899 patients) and ophthalmology (487) accounted for the bulk of the the waits of longer than 36 weeks by the end of December, and though monthly increases in long waits in these specialties were partly offset by reductions in others, the overall situation remains very difficult.

Addressing the Wales-wide situation, a Welsh Government spokesman said: “Waiting times for scheduled care are being severely affected by doctors reducing hours because of changes to HMRC pension tax rules by the UK Government.

"By the end of December, this had led to about 3,200 sessions lost, affecting nearly 27,000 patients. The health minister has called on the UK Government to resolve this matter urgently.”

A temporary solution in England, which the Welsh Government has felt it had no option but to adopt too, is meant to stabilise the situation until the end of the financial year in March.

It involves financial burden over the tax and pensions issue being absorbed by the health budgets of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which health minister Vaughan Gething described last month as a "sticking plaster".

He believes it is something the Treasury should resolve, and has urged his UK Government counterpart to find a long term solution quickly.

There was no indication during January, in Gwent at least, that the temporary solution had coaxed senior staff into taking on extra work, and it remains to be seen if the situation changes in the coming weeks.