Ambulance waits in reverse and snail’s pace progress on two-year waits
The latest Welsh NHS statistics revealed that two-year waits remain at 27,041 despite a Labour commitment to eliminate these waits in March of this year. 48.7% of the most serious (red) calls to ambulance services received an emergency response within eight minutes in September. This was 1.7% lower than in August, and the lowest since March 2023.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Russell George MS said:
“I am disappointed to read the latest statistics out of our Labour-run Welsh NHS which show two-year waits, which only stand at 265 patients in England, are still at over 27,000 here in Wales. Progress has been at a snail’s pace and at this rate, it will take another two and half years to eliminate them.
“Ambulance waits have worsened again meaning that you now have less than a 50/50 chance of an ambulance arriving within the target time for the most serious emergencies in Labour-run Wales. This is completely unacceptable and needs to be turned around fast.
“Following the uproar surrounding the A&E waits underreporting scandal, I am joining the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s calls to the Labour Government to update their inadequate methodology so that we can all have confidence in those figures again.”
