Wales' largest and most troubled health board has said no patients will be waiting for more than two years for NHS treatment by the end of this year.
Dyfed Edwards, chairman of Betsi Cadwaladr health board, said he was "fairly confident" there will be no one on the long-term waiting list by next January.
The north Wales health board has been under the highest level of Welsh government scrutiny for the best part of a decade with the situation there being described as "acute".
Figures for March, released two weeks ago, showed long-term waits across Wales falling to 8,389, the lowest since April 2021, but the majority – 5,747 – were in Betsi Cadwaladr.
In December, First Minister Eluned Morgan pledged to cut the number of patients in Wales waiting two years or more for planned treatments, from 24,000 to "about 8,000" by this spring.
Opposition parties said the March figures showed that target had been missed.
