One of Wales' leading cancer consultants has said the NHS backlog is "beyond repair" as the number of people waiting for treatment reaches record levels. There are a record 691,885 patients currently on the NHS waiting list, with more than a quarter of a million of them on it for nine months or more.
Currently there are 164,000 patients who have been on an NHS waiting list for more than a year, compared to less than 7,000 two years ago. Earlier this week Health Minister Eluned Morgan unveiled a plan to tackle the backlog, including 'super saturdays' and incentives to NHS staff to encourage them to work longer hours.
However, a top consultant and member of the Royal College of Physicians Council has said that the wait is currently so long that "week in, week out" she is seeing patients whose cancer diagnosis has progressed so far that it is almost untreatable with patients missing "curable" steps. Read more: Welsh NHS described as 'broken' as waiting times crisis deepens
