Speaking in Wednesday’s Welsh Conservative Debate on Ambulance response times, North Wales MS Mark Isherwood highlighted A&E waiting times at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, quoting a senior clinician who told him they “have got to atrocious levels.”
The Senedd Welsh Conservatives called on the Labour Welsh Government to declare the on-going situation in Wales’ ambulance service an emergency and to bring forward clear plans to solve the current crisis.
Leading the Debate, Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS detailed the intense pressures on NHS Wales, focussing on the ambulance service, the horror stories experienced by patients and paramedics, and steps to address the problems.
Mr Isherwood intervened during the debate to highlight the “extremely long” waiting times patients in North Wales are experiencing at Wrexham Maelor.
He said
“Do you share the concern of the senior clinician who also works as a GP, who wrote to me saying 'Waiting times at Wrexham Maelor A&E Department have got to atrocious levels. I've been discussing this with one of our junior doctors who does locums in the department. He confirmed that waiting times are indeed extremely long, and said the issue was that there is no space to see patients. He said that there are commonly several doctors sitting around doing nothing because there is nowhere to see the patient’, and surely physical space should be one of the easiest things to solve?”
Responding, Swansea East Labour MS Mike Hedges said whilst he couldn’t talk about Wrexham Maelor, he agreed “it should be one of the easiest things to solve.”
