In a nightmare week for the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay, its mismanagement of the NHS is causing ministers more consternation as new figures reveal the health service is at breaking point, recording its worst-ever A&E waits, longest treatment waiting list, and slow ambulance responses.
Data for September (released today) shows only 66.8% of the 88,000 patients who attended NHS emergency departments in Wales spent less than four hours in the department from arrival until admission, transfer, or discharge. The target is 95% - never met in its 12-year existence.
Statistics also revealed Aneurin Bevan Health Board (ABHB), which covers Gwent, was the worst performing in Wales with only 63.1% seen within 4 hours. The Welsh Government’s flagship Grange Hospital in Cwmbran recorded the worst A&E waits in September, seeing only 38% of patients in four hours last month, when 95% is the target.
Across Wales, 8,484 patients waited over 12 hours for treatment in August, up by 500 since August and those 85+ spent an average of 6 hours and 47 minutes in A&E, up 36 minutes since July.
Additional figures for August showed the highest ever number of patients waiting for treatment with 657,539 on patient pathways – over 14,000 more than the previous month – placing 1-in-5 Welsh people on the waiting list.
Median waiting times for that same month in Wales are nearly double that of England (21.5 weeks compared to 11.5), while 1-in-4 Welsh patients are waiting over a year for treatment, compared to only 1-in-20 in England.
When it came to ambulance performance in September, only 52.3% of emergency responses to immediately life-threatening (red) calls arrived within eight minutes, down from 57.6%.
The worst performing authority was North Wales’ Betsi Cadwaladr health board with only 45.2% arriving within the eight-minute target, but two other health boards posted less than a 50% - Dyfed’s Hywel Dda Health Board and the Central Valleys’ Cwm Taf Morgannwg.
82.2% of amber calls – which include strokes – took over 30 mins to respond. This was most acute in Swansea Bay Health Board with only 12.7% of calls arriving in 30 minutes. Additionally, Cardiff and Vale Health Board only saw 13.4% of amber calls arrive within 30 mins.
The stats land in the same week reports found staff were “frightened to come to work” in the brand-new Grange Hospital and were the “unhappiest” ever seen in Wrexham Maelor. Yesterday, the health minister admitted that when her predecessor Vaughan Gething opened the hospital four months early in the face of concerns from clinicians that “the recruitment that perhaps should have been done was not done in time”, leading to the chronic understaffing affecting it now.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative and Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said:
“The non-stop bad news about the Labour-run NHS is inevitably leading people to ask if it can get any worse. Sadly, each month shows us the answer is yes.
“Labour’s NHS is in crisis, and it is truly devastating to see the toll that is being taken on healthcare staff, with consequences for patient safety, which is becoming acute in every corner of Wales.
“People pay their taxes in the expectation that public services perform well but we are not seeing that in Labour-run Wales where both emergency and elective care seems to be at breaking point.
“The Welsh Government must urgently tackle the crisis in the Welsh NHS, put aside their failed strategies, and implement Conservative calls for rapid diagnostic centres to spot cancers earlier, and introduce surgical hubs to deliver treatment to patients closer to home in Covid-light environments outside of hospitals.”