<p>Accident and Emergency Waiting Times</p>

Part of 3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 3:32 pm on 1 March 2017.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 3:32, 1 March 2017

Thank you for that answer, and I’m glad that you acknowledge the concerns, and can confirm that intervention is actually happening now. I’ve got a slightly different question to ask you, so bear with me on this, because it’s about district nurses.

The Assembly, as you know, took evidence that the number of district nurses in Wales has dropped by 40 per cent in the last five years, with fears of further losses. And the work that district nurses do, to ensure patient recovery in their own homes, is absolutely part of keeping people out of hospital, and that’s what I’m coming to on this. Things like blocked catheters and undressed wounds shouldn’t actually, in themselves, be reasons for people to go to hospital. But if they’re not dealt with, they do become reasons to go to hospital; the consequences can be very serious, including things like sepsis.

So, can you tell us the level of emergency admissions to hospital, in Morriston, and elsewhere, as the result of conditions that have deteriorated due to insufficiently frequent attention by district nurses, and the effect of that then on A&E waiting times? Perhaps you can also tell us whether the new funding you’ve announced for nursing staff will represent replacement of those sorts of skills that district nurses have, and that we are at risk of losing. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.