Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 14 December 2022.
Thank you, Minister. On Saturday, more than 2,000 emergency 999 calls were presented, this being a 17 per cent increase on last week. The trust responded to more than 200 immediately life-threatening red calls, and also 111 received over 10,000 calls—the busiest day ever for the service. In the face of the tsunami of calls, on Sunday, the trust declared a business continuity incident. Some were left waiting for hours while others were asked to make their own way to hospital. When considering that WAST staff have worked an average of 31,700 hours of overtime every month since April 2017 at a total cost of £61 million, it is clear that the continued operation of the service is hanging by a thread. Minister, you know my view that pressure should be alleviated in major hospitals by transferring those patients who are fit for discharge but who are still awaiting a social care package to community hospitals where there are still empty wards. I would be really grateful for your thoughts on that. Will you consider moving forward again, as you did last winter, with the ward, say, in Llandudno, where people were able to leave hospital and go there as a halfway house before returning home? That takes a lot of pressure off the families, the patients and the health board. Also, what plans have you got, moving forward, about asking for volunteers to come forward and help the Welsh NHS over the winter period? Thank you.