Wales’ first minister has vowed to cut waiting times in her first major statement on how she will run her government, BBC News reports.

Waiting times are long in the Welsh NHS, as the latest available data (for July) shows.

Only 55 per cent of Welsh cancer patients started first definitive treatment within 62 days, far below the target of 75 per cent, which rises to 80 per cent by 2026. Performance in neighbouring England was 68 per cent.

On the overall elective waiting list, some 23,800 patient pathways were waiting more than two years in Wales, compared with just 107 in much larger England.

It is tempting to reach for extra capacity as the solution. But any sustainable reduction in waiting times needs to start with a proper understanding of the problem. For some hospital services, extra capacity might well be the answer. But in others, the way that pathways are managed might hold the key.

Cancer pathways are a good example. They are complex, time-critical, and often cross different NHS departments, hospitals and sectors, even in a single day. Pathway information is scattered across multiple computer systems and organisations. Clinically-agreed optimal pathways are presented separately as flow charts. This fragmented data and inherent complexity makes it difficult and time consuming for cancer tracking staff to prospectively track every patient reliably and determine the right next steps for their care.

That is why Insource’s cancer and elective pathway management software has meticulous data management at its core. So staff spend less time gathering data from different systems, and more time prospectively managing patients and understanding and solving capacity issues and bottlenecks.

If cancer and elective waits are too long in your part of the NHS, then you are not alone, and there is something you can do about it. The first step is to get in touch, and together we can discuss how to chart your journey towards short waiting times.