Dr Geoff Morgan will meet health chiefs on Thursday

Despite new Welsh Assembly targets aimed at reducing waiting times, the situation is getting steadily worse.

Dr Morgan said: "In England there is a two week maximum wait for GPs concerned about a patient with cancer.

"I had a patient who I could not get seen within eight weeks although you could see the deterioration.

"There was absolutely nothing we could do."

Last month it emerged the number of patients awaiting their first out-patient appointment in Wales has doubled since Labour came to power.

Resignation call

In July Health Minister Jane Hutt faced a resignation call from the Conservatives.

Dr Morgan met health chiefs at a University Hospital of Wales NHS trust meeting in Cardiff on Thursday to discuss the difficulties they have in meeting waiting list targets.

Jane Hutt: Calls for her resignation

It has emerged that there is a major problem with the target of reducing the number of patients waiting more than six months by March 2002.

The University Hospital of Wales NHS Trust has said that to do this they would need to complete an extra two months worth of appointments in the six months - and see 15,000 more patients - between September 2001 and March 2002.

Now a frustrated Dr Morgan, whose surgery is at Ely Bridge in Cardiff, has written to NHS chiefs.

Disintegrating service

He said that he and his colleagues spend two entire surgery sessions a week chasing up outpatients' appointments.

This was also causing "intolerable and unacceptable" situations for people suffering.

"The GPs generally are concerned that the secondary services are just not coping," said Dr Morgan.

"It's cracking at the seams - it's disintegrating."

Patient Joan Morgan: Two year wait

One of his patients Joan Morgan is suffering from severe arthritis and needs two hip operations.

"I've been on the waiting list for a twelve month waiting to see a consultant," she said.

"I've phoned the hospital and I've been told that his waiting list is two years just for the initial appointment."

However, the waiting-list problem is not confined to Cardiff alone.

The number of patients who have to wait more than six months for an outpatient appointment has risen across Wales by more than 800% in four years.

And there is the prominent case of Powys farmer Powell Jones whose ear cancer has worsened considerably because of his 15 month wait for surgery.