PLAID’S Shadow Health Minister Elin Jones has called on the Labour Government in Wales to take action to sort out the Emergency Care system to prevent a repeat of the previous winter crisis. She pointed to new figures showing that in November, 2,354 people attending a major A+E unit waited longer than 12 hours to be seen. Performance against the 4 hour target was also down, with just 77% of people being seen within 4 hours – a deterioration on performance a year ago.
Figures for Scotland show that during the period from the 2nd November to 6th December, a five week period, just 56 patients waited longer than 12 hours, and performance against the 4 hour target ranged from 94.3% to 95.3% for each of the weeks. Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Minister for Health, Elin Jones said:“Doctors in A+E departments rightly focus on those who are more seriously ill, and during winter we know that many of the cases in A+E are more complex and require more time to treat.
However, the statistics on time spent in emergency departments provide us with a snapshot of how the system is coping. That waiting times are longer than the same period last year is worrying, and shows that lessons have not been learned from previous winters. “In November, 2,354 people waited longer than 12 hours to be admitted, transferred or discharged – almost 2,300 more people than waited that length of time in Scotland over the equivalent period.
If the Labour government had ensured better access to GPs and Minor Injury Units, and better availability of out of hours cover, then many of those people could have avoided long A+E waits. “A Plaid Cymru government would train and recruit an extra 1000 doctors, which would ensure we had the doctors needed to provide out of hours GP services, as well as ensuring GPs could offer more same-day appointments.”
Add Comment