So, just how healthy is the Welsh NHS – and is it up to standard?
The demands of a fast-growing ageing population are putting the NHS in Wales under severe pressure. Here, Health correspondent Mark Smith looks at the prognosis for the years ahead...
THE Welsh NHS is facing unprecedented demands which experts claim could plunge some areas of healthcare into crisis.
Despite the Welsh Government setting the health and social care budget at a whopping £7.2bn, the changing makeup of our population still poses significant challenges.
For instance, Wales has the largest and fastest-growing proportion of older people in the UK.
Latest projections show that by 2039 44% more people will be aged over 65 compared to 2014.
While this is something to be celebrated, doctors and nurses will need to treat a greater influx of elderly people with multiple, chronic conditions.
It will inevitably lead to more people needing GP appointments, A&E admissions and access to packages of care.
Demand for surgery and other procedures is also likely to increase, therefore leading to lengthier waits as the system struggles to cope.
This was highlighted in a new Freedom of Information request by the Royal College of Surgeons which revealed that 3,605 Welsh patients were waiting 52 weeks or more for surgical treatment in March 2017.
It was a 400% rise compared with four years ago, when just 699 patients were experiencing such waits.
Worryingly, over the border in England just 1,302 patients waited longer than a year for treatment in March 2017.
Here, we look at different areas of the healthcare system and examine how well it is coping.
WELSH AMBULANCE SERVICE
Two years ago the trust was under a huge amount of pressure after consistently failing to reach life-threatened patients within the Welsh Government’s target time of eight minutes.
Several chief executives came and went and staff reported low levels of morale which almost led to industrial action.
In response, following an initial trial, a new clinical response model in Wales was implemented in February 2017.
It greatly reduced the number of calls classed as Red (immediately life-threatening) and given a timed target.
All other calls receive an “appropriate” response – either face-to-face or telephone assessment – based on clinical need.
Now just 4.5% of calls are classed as Red, and as a result more than 76% of them received a response within eight minutes in 2016-17, well above the 65% target.
But demand for the service is far from subsiding and issues with poor morale still remain.
In 2016-17 some 459,225 emergency ambulance calls were made – 2.1% up on the previous year and 116% up on 1991-92. Red calls for 2016-17:
Betsi Cadwaladr UHB Red calls: 4,673 Emergency response at scene within target time: 3,557 (77.1%)
Powys Red calls: 738 Emergency response at scene within target time: 501 (68.5%)
Hywel Dda Red calls: 2,291 Emergency response at scene within target time: 1,586 (69.8%)
ABMU Red calls: 3,896 Emergency response at scene within target time: 2,906 (75.4%)
Cwm Taf Red calls: 1,858 Emergency response at scene within target time: 1,384 (75.3%)
Aneurin Bevan Red calls: 3,657 Emergency response at scene within target time: 2,761 (76.3%)
Cardiff & Vale Red calls: 3,398 Emergency response at scene within target time: 2,786 (83.0%)
Wales Total Red calls: 20,511 Emergency response at scene within target time: 15,481 (76.3%)
While NHS England cannot be directly comparable, its figures for June 2017 show that 68.8% of “Red 1” patients were seen within an eightminute timeframe.
However, their ambulance crews aim to reach 75% of casualties within the target time, rather than 65% here.
ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY
We’ve all heard horror stories of patients waiting for hours in A&E, with some waiting on trolleys due to a lack of beds.
While these cases are in the minority, there still remain problems in accessing timely care in Welsh emergency units.
Unlike many other services, A&E attendances are generally higher in the summer months, with a slowly increasing trend over the last few years.
Figures for July 2017 showed that 83.7% of patients spent four hours or fewer in A&E before being admitted, transferred or discharged.
The target is for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours.
It was a worse performance than June (84%) but better than May (83.2%) and April (83%).
But worryingly, some 2,168 patients spent longer than 12 hours in these units, which is unacceptably