Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 29 September 2021.
Ambulance waiting times in the south-east are a matter of great concern, Minister, and this is compounded by A&E waiting times. Figures released this week show that the Grange hospital in Cwmbran has regrettably had the worst performance on record of any hospital in Wales, with only four in 10 patients being seen within four hours there. Many communities in the Rhymney valley have been without an A&E since the miners' hospital closed, and Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr in Ystrad Mynach opened without an A&E. With longer ambulance waiting times, the British Medical Association has warned that patients in Wales are having to use taxis or be at the mercy of their GPs having to drive them to A&E, and this will be worse in the south-east, and the Rhymney valley especially, where people have to travel further to get to their A&E than they would have done when the miners' was open. So, Minister, will the Government open talks with the health board to reinstate an A&E in the Rhymney valley in Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr?