Worst performance figures recorded for NHS
THE Welsh NHS has recorded its worst-ever performance figures, prompting claims patient safety is at risk of being compromised.
The Welsh Government has published its latest set of monthly NHS performance figures which look at A&E and ambulance waits, referral to treatment times and delays in cancer treatment.
It revealed that 66.8% of patients spent less than four hours in an accident and emergency unit before being admitted, transferred or discharged in September. That’s the worst performance in history, beating the 68.7% for August which was itself a record.
The Welsh Government wants 95% of people to be seen in that time but that has never been met. And 8,484 people had to wait more than 12 hours in Wales’s emergency units in September, the highest number ever recorded and up from 7,982 the month before.
Meanwhile, the Welsh Ambulance Service recorded its worst response times to immediately life-threatening “red” calls last month since new targets were introduced in 2015. Just over half (52.3%) of “red” 999 calls arrived on scene within eight minutes, which is far below the target of 65%, which has not been met for more than a year.
Last month there was an average of 130 “red” calls each day, the highest since comparable data was first available in May 2019. The average number of 999 calls made per day to the service in September was the thirdhighest on record.
Dr Suresh Pillai, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Wales, said: “We have had consistent deterioration in performance over the past five or six months.
“Emergency departments continue to be under severe strain, and we know these pressures are not limited to emergency departments but are increasing across the whole system.”
The number of people on a NHS Wales waiting list for treatment has now reached record levels. In August, 657,539 patients were on the list – over 14,000 more than the previous month – with nearly 250,000 on there for nine months (36 weeks) or more. In comparison, there were about 25,000 patients waiting 36 months or more at the very start of the pandemic.
As all non-urgent outpatient appointments were suspended in March 2020 to prioritise urgent appointments and coronavirus cases, the length of waiting times for patients referred for treatment has increased markedly ever since.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan has described the latest NHS performance figures as “sobering”.
“I think it’s important to level with the public that we’re unlikely to be able to eke into these numbers probably until the spring because the winter pressures we’re likely to be facing are significant,” she said.