Ambulance waits worsen as over 10% of patients wait 12+ hours in A&E in the Welsh NHS

The latest NHS statistics for Wales revealed NHS treatment waiting lists remain at 790,020 pathways, the equivalent of nearly 1-in-4 Welsh people.

Ambulance response times have also worsened against the 8-minute target for red calls to 50.9% and over 10,000 patients waited in A&E for over 12 hours in April – the target is zero.

Though two-year waits have fallen, they remain at 8,389 in Wales, compared with only 147 in England. The Labour Health Minister, now First Minister, Eluned Morgan promised to eliminate these waits for the last two years (by March 2023 and again by March 2024), but failed to meet these targets and still has not.

Commenting on the latest statistics, James Evans MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care said:

“Any success claimed by Labour Ministers today will be overshadowed by the fact that the Welsh NHS remains fundamentally broken after 26 years of mismanagement.

“The Welsh Labour Government is still missing its cancer targets, ambulance waits have worsened and no one at all should be waiting two years for treatment or over 12 hours in A&E, let alone over ten thousand patients.

“The Welsh Conservatives would go much further, guaranteeing 12-month maximum waits for treatment and 7-day waits for GP appointments, by declaring a health emergency and directing the resources and the entire apparatus of government at the health service.”