Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 5 June 2019.
Thank you very much, Minister. I think all of us recognise the hard work that goes in from paramedics to ensure that people do feel, and are, safe in their homes. We also know that some calls are delayed, particularly amber and green calls, and we also know that there are some significant issues that prevent the ambulance service operating efficiently. I'm thinking particularly of the handovers in hospitals, and you will have seen some reports about that in the press and the media earlier this week. We also know from the statistics you yourself have published that something like 21,000 hours were lost in the first quarter of this year in terms of ambulance handovers at hospitals. Now, we know we have very hard-working staff in accident and emergency, who feel under enormous pressure because of the pressures on that service, and we also know that ambulance workers are working at capacity as well. So, it appears to me that we have a system where we have two groups of people who work extraordinarily hard to keep us safe and to provide us with the services we need, but the system itself seems to be preventing them from always doing that. Minister, would you undertake to look again—and I know we've discussed this before—at the way in which ambulance handovers at A&Es are operated to ensure that ambulances are able to meet, I think, the 15-minute target that you have established for them and are able to spend more time providing this service and less time at handovers?