Worst Ever Performance Figures Recorded By Welsh A and E Departments
Latest figures show another record-breaking month for people on NHS waiting lists, with more than 600,000 waiting for treatment.
Last updated 23rd Sep 2021
The Welsh Ambulance Service, which is seeking help from the military for the third time since the pandemic began, recorded its second worst response times to the most urgent "red" calls.
Only 57.6% of these immediately life-threatening calls saw teams arrive on the scene within eight minutes and the target of 65% has not been met for over a year.
Jason Killens is Chief Executive of Welsh Ambulance Services - he's issued an apology to patients who have been affected. When asked if he felt this should be declared an emergency, this is what he had to say: "Let's be clear what we're seeing in the emergency ambulance service across Wales is a symptom of a wider issue across the rest of the NHS. Particularly urgent and emergency care here in Wales.
"Now we've been experiencing lengthy response time delays for some patients for a number of weeks and months now, and I want to apologise to every single one of those patients across Wales that's waited longer than we would like for their emergency ambulance to arrive, and I'm clear that the level of service that they've received is unacceptable.
"We've got a tired workforce as a result of the pandemic, and so we've got less people available to work overtime. We've got pressure across urgent emergency care, as I've said, which is leading to extensive hospital handover delays, which is also affecting our ability to respond.
"And to give you a sense of for this, one in five of our 999 calls this weekend was COVID related, so the pandemic is not over and it is still very much with us. So we've got growing activity or demand for our services. We've got pressure on our workforce as a result of the pandemic and being tougher, the workforce being tired and other things and we've got issues and pressure across the rest of the NHS."
WATCH full interview with Welsh Ambulance Service Chief Executive Jason Killens here:
More than 643,000 people are waiting for treatment to begin - the highest since records began in 2011.
In July 2021, nearly 240,000 patients had been waiting more than 36 weeks, compared with just 25,634 in February 2020.
Across Wales 62% of people started treatment within 62 days of cancer first being suspected. The target is 75%.
The Welsh Government said it had recently invested £240 million to help the NHS recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and cut waiting times.
"Waiting times remain above pre-pandemic levels and ambulance response times continue to be below target levels," a spokesman said.
"Pressures on our emergency services continue to remain high. There were more emergency ambulance calls in August 2021 than in any other August.
"We have made £25 million funding available to improve delivery of urgent and emergency care services.
"We encourage people to consider the best options for care, and not necessarily head to their local emergency department."
During a debate in the Senedd on Wednesday, Health and Social Care Minister Eluned Morgan rejected calls from the Conservatives to declare an emergency in the Welsh Ambulance Service.
Shadow health minster Russell George said: "We are seeing both emergency and elective treatment in the NHS reaching its limit right now.
"This is leading to unacceptable waits for patients and intolerable burnout for hard-working staff.
"However, this is not the new normal. Not long before the pandemic, the Labour-run NHS was regularly breaking all the wrong records.
"Among the Covid-related issues affecting public services, there are deep-rooted problems that have not been tackled in the devolution era."
Darren Hughes, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, which represents health boards, said staff were working "relentlessly to cope with current levels of demand".
"Although average waiting times for treatment remain above pre-pandemic levels, we are seeing a downward trend," he said.
"There's no doubt that coronavirus continues to have a significant impact on the delivery of health and care services across Wales.
"Rising cases have compounded existing pressures on services, meaning some difficult decisions have had to be made as many services are under more pressure now than they were at the height of the pandemic.
"Staff are doing all they can to continue delivering care for those who need it most and are exhausted after a challenging 18 months."