A series of Welsh Conservative Freedom of Information requests have revealed that since the May 2021 Senedd election, where Labour formed yet another Welsh Government with the support of Plaid Cymru, 38,374 patients had died while waiting for NHS treatment.
Wales’ seven health boards have responded with data from May 2021 up to at least June 2025, with some with data up to August 2025.
Unlike other parts of the UK, Wales has a significant proportion of NHS patients waiting for over two years for treatment. The disparity in two-year NHS waits for treatment between Wales and England is still large, with NHS Wales two-year waits standing at 7,447, compared with 182 in England.
The Labour Health Minister, now First Minister, Eluned Morgan promised to eliminate these waits for the last two years (by March 2023 and again by March 2024), but failed to meet these targets and still has not.
Commenting on the Welsh Conservative research, James Evans MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care said:
“These figures are a damning reflection of Welsh Labour's failure to get to grips with our NHS.
“While it is true that some of these individuals would sadly have passed away from natural causes regardless, the fact remains that tens of thousands of patients died while still waiting for treatment in Labour-run Wales.
“The Welsh Labour Government, propped up by Plaid Cymru, has been consistently distracted with extreme, ideological vanity projects, like their default 20mph speed limit and creating more politicians, meanwhile they have ignored our NHS.
“Wales needs more doctors and nurses, not more politicians. The Welsh Conservatives would declare a health emergency, focussing the resources of the Welsh Government and the NHS on reducing these excessive waits, instead of on the ballooning bureaucracy.”
