STAFF recruitment problems are to blame for patients in the Hywel Dda Health Board area waiting longer for treatment than in any other health board area, it has been claimed.

Ceredigion AM Elin Jones had raised concerns after statistics for referral to treatment for September 2015 showed that Hywel Dda had the lowest percentage of patients seen within target times.

The Welsh Government target is for 95 per cent of patients to be treated within 26 weeks of referral, with 100 per cent seen within 36 weeks.

However, the figures showed that just 77.6 per cent of Hywel Dda patients were treated within 26 weeks, with 89 per cent treated within 36 weeks.

Joe Teape, deputy chief executive and director of operations for Hywel Dda, said staff recruitment was an issue that had affected the treatment times across the health board, but that the board was working to improve treatment times for patients.

He said: “The health board is currently facing a number of specific specialty challenges, particularly in terms of recruitment of staff to provide the services we need alongside the volume of demand we are facing.

"We’re sorry that this means patients haven’t been seen as quickly as we would like and we acknowledge that this is unacceptable. We are working hard to counter these challenges and a number of planned additional clinics have now commenced.”See next week's south editions for the full story