‘I am really sorry if people are experiencing care that isn’t the quality that staff want to deliver’
HEALTH minister Vaughan Gething has said he finds it “really upsetting” to hear staff are considering quitting the Welsh NHS due to stress.
As part of coverage of the winter health crisis, we shared your stories with the Welsh Government’s cabinet secretary.
During that interview, he announced an extra £10m would be given to health boards to try to ease the crisis.
He has also relaxed requirements for GPs to respond to the Quality and Outcomes Framework until the end of March.
Mr Gething said it will mean GPs and practice nurses can manage their time with patients better.
We told Mr Gething the story of one nurse, with nine years’ experience, who told us: “I’ve never seen so much pressure on the service than there has been over the winter period.
“On every shift, both corridors are full (10-15 patients), we are holding ambulance crews for longer than ever due to no beds anywhere in the hospital, patients are being nursed in inappropriate areas due to there being no space, I’ve seen nurses in tears, I myself, have been in tears at least once from not being able to provide the care I want to.
“Resuscitation rooms are full, every shift, therefore meaning patients who ideally require a bed in resuscitation aren’t being nursed in the appropriate areas and are ultimately being put at risk by being nursed in other areas of the department. People are driving to A&E with life threatening conditions more frequently also, because they’ve been waiting so long for an ambulance.
“I’m currently looking at returning to Australia on a more permanent basis as I’ve never felt so demoralised and embarrassed to say I’m an A&E nurse”.
In response, Mr Gething said hearing comments like that was “really upsetting”.
“I am really upset to hear anyone say that they’re embarrassed to say they work in any area of the health service. I don’t pretend I am happy to hear that and I find it quite upsetting someone feels that way.
“I do know there are people in each emergency department who feel upset when they come into work and see the pressures and the reality of the conditions that the staff are working in but also that the public are being treated in. We have to accept, to try and resolve something, that there is a problem in the first place and how do we deal with that each winter?”
He reiterated that plans are in place to try to ease winter pressures, but there has been a huge demand.
“For all the plans we have made, some of the pressures overtopped some of the plans and reasonable assumptions we made,” he said.
We also told him stories about patients with long waits for an ambulance.
Sue Shepherd’s mother Patricia Havill, 76, from Dinas Powys, had to wait six hours for an ambulance before having to wait in an ambulance outside University Hospital of Wales and then had a lengthy admission to hospital.
We read Mrs Shepherd’s comments to Mr Gething.
Mrs Shepherd said: “The ambulance crews were so apologetic and were nothing short of fabulous. They couldn’t do enough for us.
“When we got into the triage, there were so many doctors and nurses coming to us. They couldn’t do anything else. There was physically nothing they could do. I was shocked we were sat outside A&E because this was an ambulance that could be out helping other people. We weren’t the only ones. There were four or five ambulances doing the same thing. The word I kept hearing from staff was ‘chaos’. They were saying ‘it’s absolute chaos’ ‘it’s mental’. A&E was absolutely packed.”
Mrs Havill has since needed a hip operation, and was transferred to Llandough Hospital.
“We have heard about the problems with the NHS but it’s not until you’re involved you see just how bad it is”.
Mr Gething said they were learning lessons.
“There is a commitment to learn and improve and I am really sorry if people are experiencing care that isn’t the quality that staff want to deliver, or that any leader or manager in the health service wants to see delivered. It isn’t my ambition to see people waiting outside emergency departments for hours.”
Mrs Havill fell after getting out of bed around 8am on January 2. She had to wait more than six hours for an ambulance to arrive before being taken to the University Hospital of Wales. There she had another three-hour wait before being allowed into A&E at around 6pm. She was given a bed just before midnight.
Mr Gething couldn’t comment on individual cases, but the Welsh Ambulance Service apologised for the delay in her care.
Sally Gronow from the Welsh Ambulance Service said: “We would like to apologise to Mrs Havill and her family for the wait she experienced as we have no doubt how distressing this would have been for them. This was unfortunately a result of the well documented pressures across the whole health system, which mean we have encountered significant delays in handing over patients at hospitals.
“We appreciate how difficult this must be for patients such as Mrs Havill, who are left waiting longer for an ambulance to become available as a result, as well as their relatives.
“Ensuring the safety of patients in the community is one of our main priorities and while Mrs Havill waited, a clinician in our clinical contact centre monitored her condition.
“We would be more than happy to discuss any questions that Mrs Havill’s family have together. In the meantime we hope she makes a full recovery.”
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board was also contacted for comment.
Sabrina Khan’s mother has waited for more than 27 hours for a bed. Her comments, also read to Mr Gething, were that more has to be done.
“Doctors are firefighting so have no time to see to individuals. It makes me feel sick to my stomach and helpless in this dire situation. I can’t fault the staff who are doing a sterling job under such extreme conditions. But there must be a system that should have been implemented to deal with this. There has to be a better way of dealing with the demands.
“These are human beings, life and death situations. The likes of Theresa May and the health minister who no doubt have private medical need to experience the reality of what those on the frontline are having to deal with.
“This is a result of their dire policies and distinct lack of funding. A very very sad, horrendously difficult situation”.
Mr Gething responded saying: “We are in a different position to England, from both a funding and policy point of view. We’re at the end of austerity and there is more to come.
“The Welsh Government has made a huge commitment to the service and over half of our money is being spent in this area. That comes at a cost.
“There isn’t a single answer. We’re talking about the whole system and how we need to keep people out of hospitals. That’s not just GPs but all healthcare professionals.”
Last week, routine operations at health boards across Wales were cancelled.