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Eyecare Waiting Lists

by Owen Donovan

September 3, 2026

in Health & Social Care, Issues

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Image Source: Senedd Research Service, Senedd Commission Copyright

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Eye Care Waiting Lists

Is this devolved to Wales?

Where is this happening?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

Note: A “pathway” means a course of treatment, not a patient. Each patient may be on several “treatment pathways” at the same time.

NHS waiting lists: Ophthalmology pathways waiting 26 weeks, 36 weeks, one year and two years, September 2011 onwards (custom table; May- 2025-May 2026)

Ophthalmology outpatient appointments attended; percentage of outpatient appointments attended where the patients was identified as being at risk of harm and were seen no more than 25% over the target date for treatment (custom table)

NHS waiting lists: referral to treatment, ophthalmology: Percentage of patient pathways waiting longer than 36 weeks to start treatment by health board provider
(custom table; May- 2025-May 2026)

Patients waiting for an ophthalmology outpatients appointment; percentage of patient pathways where patient was identified as being at risk of harm, receiving an outpatients appointment no more than 25% over the target date (custom table)

£ 00 million Total

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Explanation
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Who has raised this at the Senedd?

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS

Health & Care Minister

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS

First Minister

Dr Gwyn Williams MS

Backbencher

Dr Safa Elhassan MS

Backbencher

John Davies MS

Backbencher

Sara Crowley MS

Backbencher

Donna Cushing MS

Backbencher

James Evans MS

Chair: Environment & Rural Affairs

Cristiana Emsley MS

Shadow Communities Minister

Gareth Beer MS

Backbencher

Natasha Asghar MS

Backbencher

Jane Dodds MS

Backbencher

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS

Health & Care Minister

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS

First Minister

Dr Gwyn Williams MS

Backbencher

Dr Safa Elhassan MS

Backbencher

John Davies MS

Backbencher

Sara Crowley MS

Backbencher

Donna Cushing MS

Backbencher

Cristiana Emsley MS

Shadow Communities Minister

James Evans MS

Chair: Environment & Rural Affairs

Gareth Beer MS

Backbencher

Natasha Asghar MS

Backbencher

Jane Dodds MS

Backbencher

What are the party positions on this?

Plaid Cymru backbenchers used their professional and personal experiences of eye care services to back calls for improvements, criticising delays to treatment and poor information provided to patients on waiting lists.

A part of this is due to the lack of an electronic patient record. If there's no light shone on anything, bad things fester. If proper numbers aren't being collected as to the delays in surgery, the delays in transplants, the delays in injections, the delays in treatment for diabetic eye disease, the commonest cause of blindness in working-age people; if it's not recorded, it goes unanswered, unchallenged, untested. It's been terrible trying to set this up, because I've been, again, to 100 billion NHS meetings trying to get this organised.

Ophthalmology is the busiest out-patient specialty in NHS Wales, with 66,000 people waiting for treatment. Too many people are still presenting with advanced disease that could have been treated earlier. If Members want any evidence on the scale of the challenge, they only need to look at the Welsh Government's eye care measures. The target is for 95 per cent of high-risk patients to be seen within a clinically determined time frame. The all-Wales figure is 49.7 per cent and no health board is meeting that target. Too many patients whose sight is at risk are not being seen in a timely manner.

I want to challenge us all to think differently about waiting lists. Because I was not simply waiting for treatment, I was waiting to know whether my sight could be saved. The waiting itself causes harm....When you're on a waiting list, every gap in information is filled by fear: has my referral gone through? Has it been lost? Have I been forgotten about?....I remember receiving an appointment letter and a cancellation letter for the very same appointment on the same day on more than one occasion.

Previously, Labour have been paying quite heavily for treatment to be outsourced and for people to have operations privately but paid for by the NHS, which isn't anywhere near a long-term solution. Staff retention in the NHS and in this particular area as well is massively difficult, and the very fact that you've got good working conditions, you've got high productivity and happy people means that you're going to have better productivity just as a result and people will want to stay.

Reform UK supported the backbench motion calling for improvements, criticising the difference in service levels between health boards.

….managers and different people in the NHS are very good at identifying what the problems are, but can't actually put anything in place to try and simplify things; that's something that we support very heavily. Gwyn (Williams) also talked about the fragmentation across health boards; we see that too often. We don't see the sharing of best practice. You could be doing something phenomenal in Swansea Bay, but just up the road in Cardiff and Vale, they won't copy what you're doing because they've got their own structures, their own bureaucracy, and it doesn't work.

Cataract surgery is one of the most successful operations the NHS performs, but timing matters. In Wales, the waiting time in many areas stretches to around two years. Just 10 miles from my home, across the border in England, patients can often receive surgery within weeks. I was fortunate. I could afford to pay privately….But most people cannot make that choice….they cannot simply buy their eyesight back.

Labour MSs haven’t said anything on this specifically, but a majority supported the Member’s Debate motion calling for improvements.

Test Test Test

The Conservatives called for the Welsh Government to implement the recommendations of the previous Senedd’s Health Committee.

The health committee in the last Senedd found several systematic issues when it came to ophthalmology, and I know that they've been touched upon. Yet it appears that very little has been done since then to rectify it. One of the big challenges—and I know many of my colleagues have said this today—was indeed workforce shortages, something that is, of course, having a major impact on the NHS sectors. Wales has just 1.97 consultant ophthalmologists per 100,000 population, well below the recommended three per 100,000.

Green MSs haven’t said anything on this yet, but supported the Member’s Debate motion calling for improvements.

Test Test Test

Jane Dodds highlighted the inaccurate recording of patients who have potentially been put at harm due to delays in diagnosis and treatment.

Between 2021 and 2023, as the number of patients waiting beyond safe time frames climbed past 70,000, Wales managed to record only 45 incidents of harm. This was not because sight wasn't being lost. The Royal National Institute of Blind People Cymru, the royal college and the health boards themselves all told the (previous Senedd’s health) committee that harm was almost certainly going uncounted, and that is unacceptable. If we cannot count the harm, we cannot be honest about the scale of the crisis.

Who is responsible?

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS

Health & Care Minister

What have ministers said?

The national strategy....sets out a model based on regional working, workforce transformation, clinical networks, digital enablement and more effective use of capacity across the whole system....Patients experience better care only when strategy is translated into delivery. I want a renewed focus on implementation and outcomes. Work is under way to establish a clearer understanding of progress across Wales, identify variation and provide a stronger basis for future delivery.

Over 2,000 care episodes a month are managed by independent prescribing optometrists in the community, which helps to reduce unnecessary demand on hospital and GP services....The future of eye care calls for more than just expanding hospital services. It means creating an integrated system, where optometry and ophthalmology work together to provide the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

What's being done about this?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What have the Senedd's Committees said?

Nothing has been discussed yet.

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Relevant Votes

Date	Motion Number	Subject	Tabled As	Binding Vote?	Votes For	Abstentions	Votes Against	Absent/No Vote	Outcome
08/07/26	NDM9244	Call for action to reduce eyecare waiting times		No	75	14	0	5	AGREED

Further Reading

Senedd Research Service (28th November 2025). “Losing sight: why eye care in Wales needs urgent attention“
Health & Social Care Committee (November 2025). “Inquiry into ophthalmology services“
NHS Wales, Performance & Improvement (September 2024). “National Clinical Strategy for Ophthalmology“

Related Issues

NHS Waiting Lists

NHS Waiting Lists

by Owen Donovan

September 3, 2026

Tags: CON-04 HSC 15 LD-01 National PC-01 PC-07-M PC-36 PC-37 PC-38 PC-41 PC-43 RF-03 RF-09 RF-32