Accident and Emergency Waiting Times

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:04 pm on 15 January 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:04, 15 January 2020

Well, that's exactly why, in the statement that I've issued today, I set out the work that will be done to look at ambulance availability. That's about releasing ambulances into the community, but also, as I've said, it must be about further improvements to get people through the hospital and out of a hospital as well. We have been more successful than ever at keeping people in their own homes than before.

When it comes to a new way of working in emergency care, the programme's being led Jo Mower, the national clinical lead for unscheduled care, and we've invested in that programme. She's worked with her peers in emergency departments across the country to look at what that means for those departments, but that then has to be linked in to what that means for the whole system. So, my expectation is that we don't just provide care in the here and now and have a short-term answer; we need a longer term answer as well. Because I wouldn't pretend to any Member in this place, regardless of their party, that I'm sanguine and content about the current level of performance within our A&E system—that is both for the staff who work in it and the pressure that they feel, but also for people as well. And indeed, the conversation I had with a patient in Morriston A&E reinforced that. There's great support and understanding among the public about the pressure on the system, but actually what they want is improvement, and that's exactly what I want as well.