The longest waiting lists for planned NHS treatments fell by more than a quarter in February, according to the latest statistics.

In February there were 15,505 cases where somebody had waited more than two years compared to more than 21,087 in January – a decrease of more than 26%.

Health Secretary Jeremy Miles welcomed the drop and said it showed what could be achieved when health boards focus on “delivery” and “new ways of working”.

But the figures suggest considerable progress is still needed if the NHS in Wales is to hit the First Minister’s target of reducing waits of two years and over to 8,000 by March.

There is a two-month time-lag in publishing NHS waiting times data which means the position at the end of March will be seen in figures published next month.

In order to hit that target, NHS Wales would need to achieve a further 48.4% decrease in the longest waits over the course of a single month.

The health secretary has already indicated he believes the NHS will come “pretty close” to achieving its goal.

The figures also show some variation between health boards on what progress they are making in tackling the longest waits.

In February there were still more than 8,300 instances where somebody had waited more than two years in Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board which covers north Wales.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Cardiff and Vale health boards each have more than 2,200 instances .

However the figure stands at 829 in Hywel Dda health board which covers west and parts of mid Wales and 280 in the Swansea Bay health board area. Powys health board has no waits of over two years.

The NHS in England has virtually eliminated waits of two years or more.

The number of two-year waits in each health board in February:

The latest figures also show the total size of the NHS waiting list in Wales stood at just over 793,900 in February.

This was a decrease of around 2,900 patient pathways – which account for patients who may be on multiple waiting lists – from January, but it is still 74.9% higher than May 2020 during the early part of the Covid pandemic.

In a speech to NHS leaders earlier this month, Miles set a new target of decreasing this number by around 200,000 during the coming year and eliminate two-year plus waits completely.

More funding is expected to be announced in the coming weeks to help the NHS achieve this but the health secretary warned the Welsh government would seek to claw back additional funding from health boards who fail to meet their targets.

Meanwhile statistics show ambulance and A&E departments continued to experience significant pressures this spring.

In March 50.3% of urgent red calls receiving a response within eight minutes – a deterioration of 0.8% compared to February. The target is 65%.

In March, 66.9% of patients in all NHS emergency departments spent less than four hours in the department from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge.

This was lower than the previous month. The target of 95% has never been met.

During the same month 10,384 patients waited 12 hours or more. This was 1,437 (16.1%) more than in the previous month.

Miles said he was “very happy” the waiting list had fallen for a third month in a row.

“We still have more work to do to reach our ambitious targets, but it is encouraging,” he added.

But Welsh Conservative shadow health secretary James Evans said the statistics “are worse than a mixed bag”.

He added that it was a “testament to Labour’s failure to meet their targets” that the two-year waits “still exist at all”.

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, Plaid Cymru spokesperson on health and care, said the monthly update were “not statistics to celebrate by any measure”.

“Any improvements in the dire statistics are of course welcomed, but let’s not pretend that things are good, or anywhere near as they should be,” he said.