Pressures on NHS keep on mounting
ANOTHER month and another set of record-breaking waiting times for the Welsh NHS. More people than ever before are now awaiting some form of nonurgent treatment on the health service – around one in five of the population – with a quarter of a million on the list for more than nine months.
And it’s a similarly dire situation for the acute end of the system. Only around half of people in a potentially life-threatening emergency are being reached by the ambulance service within their target time of eight minutes, and A&E attendance has shot up substantially in the last month.
These performance figures were recorded at a time when a new strain of Omicron was leading to a sharp rise in infection rates across the country. It led to scores of NHS staff going off sick and more Covidpositive patients ending up in hospital. It also came during a period when nearly all governmentimposed restrictions were lifted.
As a result, the number of available beds reduced substantially, in some cases to the point where “black alerts” – the highest level of pressure – were declared by some health boards. These are normally reserved for terrorist attacks among other mass incidents.
Sadly, these demands on the NHS have become so commonplace that they’re almost considered the norm. Most of the general public would not be surprised if they had to spend hours on end in A&E, or see their formerly mild conditions deteriorate before they are given an appointment for an operation.
What we are dealing with here is a system-wide issue which cannot be solved by just one area of the health service improving. We need patients to be able to flow through the NHS – from ambulance, to A&E, to ward to discharge – with relative ease. This requires investment, a serious boost in the workforce and a concerted effort to keep people healthy and independent within their communities. It also needs investment in primary and social care so beds can be freed up in hospitals for those who really need it.
As things stand, staff are becoming increasingly burnt out and patients are coming to harm and even dying. It cannot be acceptable for any patient to be stuck in an ambulance for 24 hours before being sent into A&E. But this is occurring and with greater frequency than ever before. The Welsh Government’s recovery plan, set to be released next week, will have a lot of areas to cover.