Health board is worst A&E performer
A HEALTH board which covers Bridgend was the worst-performer when it came to lengthy waits in A&E last month.
In January, nearly a quarter (23.6%) of patients spent longer than four hours at Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) Health Board emergency units.
But it was Morriston Hospital in Swansea, rather than Bridgend’s Princess of Wales Hospital, which was the main culprit for the “disappointing” statistics.
At Morriston, 62.2% of patients spent less than four hours in A&E – the worst in Wales.
And 9.5% of patients (625) were in the emergency unit for 12 hours or more.
The Welsh Government wants no patient to spend that long in an accident and emergency unit.
At Princess of Wales, 78.9% of patients spent less than four hours, while 6.1% waited longer than 12 hours.
Overall in Wales there was an increase in the number of patients spending more than 12 hours at accident and emergency units in Wales compared to a year ago.
A total of 4,069 patients spent in excess of 12 hours in A&E in January compared to 3,290 in the same month the year before.
It was the highest number since March 2016 when 4,393 experienced such lengthy waits.
At the other end of the scale, 79% of people arriving at Welsh A&Es spent less than four hours, down from the December figure of 80.4% but better than January 2015 (78.6%).
The Welsh Government target is for 95% of patients to spend less than four hours in all emergency care facilities from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge.
In response, a Welsh Government spokeswoman said NHS Wales’ urgent and emergency care services were under “extraordinary pressure” at times in January.
She said: “Despite this A&E clinicians and support staff have enabled almost eight in every 10 patients to spend less than four hours in emergency care departments from their arrival until admission, transfer or discharge.
“Careful preparation work to enable health boards to be ready for winter has largely helped to manage significant peaks in both the numbers and complexity of patients who access A&E services alongside an additional £50m Welsh Government investment.
“However we have been absolutely clear with health boards that the numbers of patients waiting for longer than 12 hours in A&E for a hospital bed is unacceptable.
“We will work with NHS Wales and partners across the community and hospital care system to achieve improvements for patients.”
There were slightly fewer numbers of patients attending A&E in January 2017 (78,586) compared to the previous year (80,453).
The situation in Wales appears steadier than in NHS England where leaked figures suggested record numbers of patients were waiting more than four hours to start treatment.