Senedd election 2026: tackling Welsh NHS waiting lists - the role of anaesthesia
Ahead of the 2026 Senedd election, we have published our manifesto, ‘Tackling Welsh NHS waiting lists: the role of anaesthesia’.
We are calling on political parties to take action on waiting lists by: funding more doctors to train as anaesthetists; retaining the current anaesthetic workforce by improving working conditions; and investing in measures to improve the care patients receive before and after surgery.
Fund more anaesthetic training posts
Anaesthetists are critical to reducing waiting lists as most operations cannot take place without them. However, Wales has a shortage of 120 anaesthetists, 17% below what is needed to meet demand. We estimate that this prevents around 90,000 operations and procedures from taking place each year.
We call on political parties to:
- Fund additional anaesthetic training posts.
- Publish a comprehensive workforce plan, outlining how workforce shortages across the board will be addressed.
Retain the current workforce
Across Wales, anaesthetists are facing challenging working environments and poor work-life balance, contributing to exit from the profession. Nearly one in five anaesthetists expect to leave the NHS within five years, and a further 20% are unsure.
We call on political parties to:
- Engage with doctors constructively on pay issues.
- Support more flexible working hours.
- Increase opportunities for career progression.
Unlock NHS productivity in Wales
NHS productivity is undermined by inefficiencies, including postponed operations, surgical complications, long hospital stays, and high readmission rates. These are exacerbated by avoidable issues such as patients being unprepared for surgery due to health issues such as smoking, obesity, frailty or uncontrolled comorbidities like diabetes.
Anaesthetists are key to providing solutions. They lead numerous interventions before and after surgery to optimise the surgical pathway, such as early screening to assess patients’ health as soon as they join the waiting list, followed by prehabilitation services to help patients improve their health. For these services to be widely implemented, numerous barriers must be addressed.
We call on political parties to:
- Modernise digital systems across the Welsh NHS.
- Establish an ‘NHS Efficiencies Transformation Fund’.
- Monitor service delivery through an audit of perioperative care.
- Incentivise implementation by including surgical pathway interventions and outcomes into Healthcare Inspectorate Wales’ assessment framework.
- Build a perioperative care workforce fit for the future.