‘Safety being compromised in our A&E departments’
CONSULTANTS from accident and emergency departments across Wales have written to the First Minister saying “safety is currently compromised in all of our departments to an unacceptable level”.
The letter signed by 46 doctors from the six Welsh health boards – including 10 doctors from Cardiff & Vale University Health Board – highlights the problems they face daily and says the situation is in some ways worse in Wales than it is in England.
It follows a similar letter from health boards in England and Wales to Theresa May last week highlighting the “appalling” and “intolerable” state of hospital A&E departments.
The doctors behind the latest letter write: “The letter sent to the Prime Minister mentioned the many reports in the media of how appalling the situation has become in many departments.
“The emergency departments (EDs) in Wales are no exception – indeed, in some ways the situation is even worse. The four-hour target figures for our best performing hospitals are similar to those from some of the worst performing hospitals in England.”
They go on to apologise to “patients for being unable to provide the safe and efficient emergency service we wish to” and thank “all of our staff for their dedication and hard work under extreme conditions”. The doctors say: More patients in the ED are waiting for ward beds than the ED can hold, with no space to see new patients;
Staff arriving for shifts to find the patients they cared for the previous day (and often the day before) still in the ED;
Staff are in tears at work as they do not feel they can deliver the care patients need; and
Ambulances waiting outside every ED, with a knock-on effect on how ambulance staff can respond to callouts.
The letter says: “Safety is currently compromised in all of our departments to an unacceptable degree. This is despite the enormous efforts made by our staff to keep patients safe in extremely challenging circumstances.”
It adds: “We feel that the current situation demonstrates that both the Welsh NHS and Welsh social care are severely and chronically under-resourced. We have neither sufficient staff, nor sufficient beds (in either acute hospitals or the community) to cope with the needs of our ageing population.”
And the doctors claim the situation is driving dedicated medical staff away from their careers in the nation’s A&E departments.
Signatory Dr Tim Rogerson, a consultant in emergency medicine at Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital, told the BBC: “We’re on our knees as far as emergency care [is concerned].”
He added: “There’s good evidence that if patients are seen in emergency departments which are crowded, that are full, their treatment is delayed.
“That can actually cause an increase in the length of stay, it can make their illness more severe and in some cases it can cause death, so for safety and patient care we’re very, very worried.”
Health Minister Vaughan Gething recently said plans are in place to try to ease winter pressures, but there has been huge demand.
He said: “For all the plans we have made, some of the pressures overtopped some of the plans and reasonable assump- tions we made.”
The letter coincided with the release of new Welsh Government figures showing A&E staff and ambulance crews have just experienced their busiest December on record.
The average number of A&E attendances per day last month was 2,656, up 5.4% on last December. There was a 26% increase in the number of patients spending 12 hours or more in the department compared with 12 months ago.