There are more than 700,000 “patient pathways” waiting for treatment in Wales
The UK government has said it wants to work with the Welsh government to help reduce NHS waiting times.
UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay has invited Welsh and Scottish ministers to discuss how to “get patients seen more quickly”.
He said he would be “open to requests” for Welsh and Scottish patients who were “waiting lengthy periods” to be treated in England.
The Welsh government declined to respond directly to the offer of talks.
Welsh ministers previously said long waiting list times were “falling every month in Wales”.
The health service in Wales is run by the Welsh government but some NHS patients travel to England for treatment.
Mr Barclay, who is responsible for the NHS in England, said the proposed talks would be aimed at “building on the current arrangements for cross-border healthcare”.
Figures published last month showed hospital waiting lists had risen again in Wales, although A&E waiting times had improved despite record numbers turning up at emergency units.
According to the statistics there were 748,395 “patient pathways” waiting for hospital treatment in May.
Patient pathways refer to the total number of waits, rather than people waiting, as some may be on more than one waiting list.
In England, the latest waiting list for hospital treatment topped 7.5m people for the first time.
Nearly 780,000 hospital appointments have been postponed because of strike action since last December with NHS England saying that was a factor in the rising number of people waiting for treatment.
The NHS in Scotland is also facing record waiting times.
In a statement, Mr Barclay said: “I hugely value being able to share knowledge and experiences on the joint challenges facing our healthcare systems”.
“I want to support collaboration between our nations to share best practices, improve transparency and provide better accountability for patients”.
“This will help to ensure we are joined up when it comes to cutting waiting lists – one of the government’s top five priorities – and will allow us to better work together to improve performance and get patients seen more quickly, ” Mr Barclay added.
But Wes Streeting, UK Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “The only advice the Tories are qualified to offer is how to wreck the NHS and cause the biggest strikes in its history.”
Although the Welsh government declined to directly respond to Mr Barclay’s offer, it previously said: “Wales includes more referrals in its waiting times statistics than England does.
“Long waiting times are falling every month in Wales and have more than halved in the past year.
“The overall growth in waiting lists in Wales has been smaller in Wales than in England over the last 12 months – it grew by 3.6% in Wales and by 12.1% in England.”
It also said Wales had outperformed England in major emergency department performance in nine of the past 10 months, adding patients were treated according to clinical urgency.
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