Written question WQ98430
- Asked by
- Mark IsherwoodConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 5 days
Question
What assessment has the Cabinet Secretary made of the impact of health boards’ current approach to commissioning ophthalmology care through short-term contracts on staffing levels and the long-term objective of reducing waiting times?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
The commitment to commission 20,000 more cataract procedures in 2025-26 has supported a significant reduction in long ophthalmology waits of more than two-years – they have fallen from more than 5,650 at the end of January 2025 to 319 at the end of January 2026.
This has been achieved by increasing productivity in the NHS to deliver more operations on each cataract surgery list and by securing some additional capacity in the independent sector.
The main aim of the short-term additional independent capacity this year is to support the NHS to clear the backlog of waits over two years, while the NHS plan to develop local provision is in line with the agreed national ophthalmology strategy. The focus for the future is for more regional working and to move more care into enhanced community-based optometry services.
Health Education and Improvement Wales and the national ophthalmology clinical implementation network (CIN) are assessing the workforce to support both the medium and long-term workforce needs across all both primary and secondary care.