The number of people waiting more than an hour to transfer from
an ambulance into an emergency department in Wales has fallen by
almost a fifth.
Health Secretary will today visit the Royal
Glamorgan Hospital where significant improvements have been made
in cutting long ambulance patient handover times.
The overall time the Welsh Ambulance Service waits to transfer
people to staff at the hospital's emergency department fell by
more than 87% in June compared with May and almost three-quarters
of people were transferred in just 15 minutes.
Performance at Morriston Hospital's emergency department in
Swansea is also improving – there's been a 70% reduction in the
time it takes for the ambulance service to transfer patients at
the site in June.
A national taskforce has been set up to reduce ambulance patient
handover delays across Wales, helping to speed up the transfer of
people into emergency departments and release ambulance crews to
respond to 999 calls in the community.
But while there have been improvements in June, there continues
to be too much variation across Wales.
The latest figures show pressure on emergency care services
remains high – June saw the third highest daily attendances at
emergency care facilities on record. But the average time from
arrival to triage was 16 minutes – the shortest since February
2021.
Health Secretary said: “Today's
figures show that our focus on improving ambulance patient
handover performance is working, with handover times in June the
lowest since September 2021.
“With improvements in same-day emergency care and patient flow in
place, significant progress is being made in most areas of Wales.
“Staff across Wales work hard day in, day out, to provide the
best possible care for patients and I want to thank them for
their continued efforts and the improvements we are seeing.
"We've recently set up a national, clinically-led taskforce to
support these efforts and have been clear with health boards
about our expectations.
“With changes to how the ambulance service manages 999 calls,
it's important we continue to work to see further progress to
ambulance patient handover performance.”
Changes to the way the Welsh Ambulance Service responds to the
most serious 999 calls were introduced on 1 July. A new
purple category has been created for people suffering from an
out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and the red category has been
retained for the life-threatening emergencies for people at high
risk of cardiac or respiratory arrest, including serious
illnesses and trauma.
A new "orange: time sensitive" category for people with clear
symptoms of stroke and other serious conditions such as acute
coronary syndrome/heart attacks, will come into effect before the
winter.
New yellow and green categories for people with symptoms that
would benefit from further clinical assessment and access to
community alternatives, scheduled transport to hospital or to be
discharged over the telephone or at scene, will also be
introduced.
The latest NHS performance figures show the longest waits for
treatment increased in May, as anticipated.
More than 1,900 people started cancer treatment and more than
14,200 people were told the good news they don't have cancer, as
performance improved against the 62-day target in May, increasing
to 61.3%.
The Health Secretary added: "It's disappointing
to see the longest waits for treatment rise after we brought them
down in recent months, but they are 85% lower than the peak.
“But I am confident we will see another significant reduction
next month – when we receive the end of quarter one position –
based on the feedback I have received from health boards and that
we will be on track in our plans to eliminate two year waits.”
Notes to editors
Ambulance Service Indicators -
NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee
