Jane Hutt is announcing the new strategy

The group was established by the National Assembly to work with the NHS driving through reforms.

A draft report published last November by the assembly's Waiting Times Strategy Group criticised the current approach, in which patients are treated according to how long they have been waiting instead of how serious their illness is.

The new waiting times strategy will call on family doctors to ease hospital burdens by providing more services, such as psysiotherapy in the community.

Mrs Hutt also wants to discharge patients more quickly and is calling on health trusts to set up prioritisation systems in the five health areas with the longest waiting times.

The strategy will also introduce seven-day weeks for operating theatres as well as new computer booking systems.

Figures released by the Welsh Assembly in April showed waiting list numbers had fallen by 10,000 since the previous year.

Back in May, assembly members voted not to censure Health Minister Jane Hutt on the issue of failing to meet targets set to reduce NHS waiting lists.

The Tories said that although the number of people waiting for inpatient treatment has now fallen by almost 15,000, more than 4,000 cases were removed from the list as they were waiting for diagnosis rather than treatment.