North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has challenged the First Minister this week over waiting times at North Wales Accident and Emergency departments, after latest figures revealed that 919 people waited more than 12 hours to be seen in September.
Speaking in the Chamber, he said:
“Against the Welsh Government’s target of 95 per cent, the figures published last week for September show that just 72 per cent of accident and emergency patients were seen in four hours at Wrexham Maelor and 69.7 per cent at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, with 919 people waiting more than 12 hours in the major A&E departments in North Wales.
“Having ignored warnings that the closure of minor injury units, the withdrawal of NHS community beds and the shrinking share of the NHS Wales budget going to GP surgeries would lead to this precise outcome, will you now listen - and how - to those concerns in order to address them and reduce this demand via community-based prevention mechanisms?”
In his reply, the First Minister stated there had been an improvement in the four hour target for September.
He said:
“The latest published figures prove that the majority of patients, nearly eight out of 10, are seen, treated, admitted or discharged very quickly and within four hours of their arrival despite, actually, an increase in attendances involving the elderly with complex needs and high-acuity and high-dependent patients. Whilst the achievement of the target has been difficult - that much is true - nevertheless we did see an improvement in the four-hour target in September.”
Mr Isherwood added: “It seems odd that the First Minister claimed some improvement in the four hour target during September, when the figures from NHS Wales show that for the month of September, just 78.1% of patients attending Major A&E departments were seen within four hours – this compared to 80% for August and standing 16.9% below the Welsh Government’s self-set 95% target.”
ENDS