Following warnings from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that Accident and Emergency departments across Wales are “under unprecedented and unsafe pressure”, North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has implored the Welsh Government to act on their call for urgent action.
Questioning the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood said ‘Corridor care’ is becoming normalised, and asked how the Welsh Government will respond to the Royal College’s call for urgent action to reduce accident and emergency waiting times.
He said:
“It's all well and good for the First Minister to have stated yesterday that, after 27 years in power, they ‘recognise that more needs to be done to ensure that we do not see that corridor care that compromises patient privacy and dignity'.
“Only this month, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine stated that ‘Clinicians across Wales are warning that Emergency Departments are under unprecedented and unsafe pressure’, adding that, between January and November 2025, nearly 112,000 patients in Wales waited over 12 hours in Emergency Departments. They estimate that 936 excess deaths in 2024 were associated with long Emergency Department waits.
“In North Wales, the situation is particularly severe, with a fifth waiting 12 hours or more at Ysbyty Gwynedd Emergency Department, a quarter at Wrexham Maelor Hospital and nearly a third at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.
“Corridor care is becoming normalised, driven by a lack of available in-patient beds and delayed discharges, linked to shortages in Social Care and Community capacity.
“How do you therefore respond to the Royal College's call for urgent action to improve whole-system patient flow, rather than a predominant focus on redirecting patients away from Emergency Departments?”
In his response, the Cabinet Secretary said that they do not endorse corridor care as a routine measure, “though recognising that, in certain circumstances where there is local escalation, that does obviously occur, as we can see at the moment”.
He added: “I think it’s about a whole-system focus on better flow through the hospital. That is partly to do with delayed discharges, it's partly, also, about improving hospital performance on early discharges during the hospital day”.
