Wales’ A&E safety risks ‘unacceptable’

Emergency hospital consultants in Wales have written to the first minister claiming both NHS Wales and the social care sector are ‘severely and chronically under-resourced’.

December figures show the lowest level of A&E performance since March 2016 but attendances were 5.4 per cent higher than 2017.

In December 78.9 per cent of patients spent less than four hours in all emergency care facilities from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge, missing the target of 95 per cent, and 3,741 patients spent 12 hours or more in an emergency care facility, an increase of 769 patients compared to the same month in 2016.

The letter said it did not dispute the effort that had gone into winter planning but ‘unfortunately our experience from the clinical front line is that these plans have fallen well short of what was required to maintain adequate care for our patients’.

The letter from the consultants goes on to say: “We have neither sufficient staff nor sufficient beds (in either acute hospitals or the community) to cope with the needs of an ageing population.”

One of the signatories, Tim Rogerson, a consultant in emergency medicine at Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital, said: “We're on our knees as far as emergency care [is concerned].

"We have patients coming into emergency departments that are already full.

"There's good evidence that if patients are seen in emergency departments which are crowded, that are full, their treatment is delayed.

"That can actually cause an increase in the length of stay, it can make their illness more severe and in some cases it can cause death, so for safety and patient care we're very, very worried.”

Vaughan Gething, Health Secretary, said: “Despite the busiest December on record for our A&E departments and the busiest ever month for the Welsh Ambulance Service, our NHS has continued to perform under exceptional pressure in delivering emergency and scheduled care.”