内容摘要：Mr Samson said that if Scotrail was able to "focus on their core product" then passenger numbers could increase due to an improved service.

Mr Samson said that if Scotrail was able to "focus on their core product" then passenger numbers could increase due to an improved service.

Before the Covid pandemic, Wales had less than a couple of hundred long waits, but the backlog peaked at 68,000 in the spring of 2022.Although this figure came down, in England these two-year waits have been virtually eradicated.

With numbers stubbornly remaining over 20,000 over the last year in Wales,Health Secretary Jeremy Miles said the figures did not yet reflect the investment."Health boards have assured me patients are getting faster treatment as a result and I look forward to seeing the impact of this in the coming months," he said.

The number waiting more than a year for treatment also rose, to 173,768, the highest level for more than two years.When we look at only consultant-led specialisms, so we can compare with England, 24% are waiting more than a year in Wales, compared with 3% across the border.

But the scale of the challenge can be seen in more detailed figures seen by BBC Wales, which show 1,566 waits of more than three years in November.

Virtually all of these very long waits (91%) are in the troubled Betsi Cadwaladr health board, mostly in specialisms such as dermatology, orthodontics, general and oral surgery.They even had to keep it a secret even from the closest family members, which caused "one of the biggest stresses".

"If anybody found out and felt against it, they could have stopped her from going," she said."It would have meant that [we] could have got in trouble for it."

Ms Fenner described her mother as "an incredibly independent person who knew her own mind", so initially, her decision had come as no surprise."But then the gravity of the situation came in of exactly what it meant - it was one of those things that you hear about that doesn't happen to you."