Wales’ Health Secretary has announced £28m to help the NHS cut waiting times.

The funding will pay for more evening and weekend appointments and regional working to target waiting times in specialties such as orthopaedics, ophthalmology, general surgery and gynaecology.

Health boards will also free-up outpatient appointments for new patients to be seen by reducing the number of automatic follow-ups in cases where they are not needed.

These interventions will cut the number of people waiting more than two years for treatment, waiting times for a first outpatient appointment and ensure more people receive diagnostic tests in eight weeks.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Jeremy Miles said: “This new funding will be used by health boards to deliver a range of schemes that will start almost immediately.

“They will target the longest waits in orthopaedics, general surgery, ophthalmology and gynaecology by increasing capacity for more people to be seen and treated through overtime and more regional working.

“The NHS is working very hard to reduce the backlog, which built up during the pandemic – this is additional funding, over and above the recovery money we make available every year, to support the NHS to cut the longest waits and improve access to planned care.”