At First Minister’s Questions today, the Leader of the Welsh Conservatives challenged the First Minister over the state of the Welsh NHS, following a recent Y Byd ar Bedwar programme that exposed that almost 89,000 patients were treated in corridors or other non-clinical areas at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board hospitals from 2022 to October 2025.
On average, patients spent almost 10 hours in corridors at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd last year, the longest of all hospitals in the region, while one patient at Ysbyty Gwynedd in 2024 remained in a corridor for over five days.
Mr Millar reiterated Welsh Conservative calls to declare a health emergency, to trigger immediate action across the NHS and get to grips with the crisis.
Commenting, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar MS, said:
“Across Wales, emergency care is deteriorating, corridor care has become the norm, and people are coming to harm and dying as a result.
“The Welsh Government’s strategy to address these issues isn’t working. Staff are demoralised and feel unsupported, while patients are being stripped of their dignity and being put at risk.
“It is shameful that the First Minister declined to apologise to those affected by corridor care, and it is beyond belief that she continues to deny that our NHS is the midst of a full-blown crisis.
“The First Minister cannot fix a problem she refuses to admit exists. It’s time to pull the rip-cord and declare a health emergency to surge bed capacity, end the scandal of corridor care, and prevent patients dying needlessly in hallways and cupboards in our hospitals across Wales.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The full FMQs exchange will be published here in due course.
