NHS needs to ‘keep on improving inWales’ – new report
AREPORT from the chief executive of the NHS states that “steady and sustained improvement” is being made to national healthcare in Wales.
The Annual Quality Statement for NHS Wales is launched today by Dr Andrew Goodall.
The statement seeks to describe some of the improvements and innovations made in the health service over the past year, as well as highlighting areas for future improvement.
Some of the innovations made by NHS Wales which were highlighted in the report include a new form of plastic surgery for lymphoedema patients and it helping to improve their quality of life.
The surgery means patients no longer require compression garments, which reduces the cost to the NHS.
The procedure has been funded by the Welsh Government’s health technology fund and is only available in Wales in the UK.
In other areas, more than 150 new staff members have been recruited and new services have been created for Children and Adolescent Mental Health services in Wales.
New crisis intervention teams are caring for 15 to 24-year-olds experiencing severe mental illness.
Dr Goodall said: “We have seen several years of sustained improvement in diabetes outcomes for children and young people. Cancer survival rates continue to improve despite increasing numbers of people requiring treatment.
“Waiting times to access diagnostic services continue to fall and we have seen a steady decline in people experiencing delays in their hospital discharge thanks to improved links between hospitals and social care.
“Our new clinical response model has vastly improved ambulance response times and has attracted interest from across the UK and the world.
“Passionate and committed NHS staff are leading improvements in the healthcare services across Wales, services used by thousands of people every week; the Annual Quantity Statement takes a look at just some of these improvements, but also looks at what we need to do next.
“I want to challenge the NHS to keep on improving; to work to provide care that is truly centred on the individual patients, and to ensure health and care are delivered to the same high standards consistently across Wales.”
Figures showed that through the course of the year, there were one million attendances to A&E and 750,000 hospital admissions with 450,000 ambulance calls.
There were also three million outpatient appointments and an estimated 18 million contacts in GP practises, community clinics and other primary care settings.