ALARMING STATISTICS REVEAL THAT TARGETS ARE STILL NOT BEING MET

Plaid Cymru call for a revolution in both and health and care to improve NHS waiting times.

The latest NHS waiting times have been released, and reveal that targets are still not being met.

Across all data, targets are not being met, with ambulance response times a particular worry. The picture at health board level is incredibly alarming, with Hywel Dda University Health Board not even reaching the 40% target for 8 minute response times.

Despite a decrease in attendance at A&E departments, the four and twelve hour targets were the third and second lowest on record respectively. The average time spent in emergency departments was also the second longest on record, at three hours and two minutes.

Although there was an improvement in cancer diagnosis and treatment from the last month, there is still a lot of improvement to be made in the efficiency for Cancer patients.

Plaid Cymru has continued to call for fundamental changes to be made to reduce pressure on the NHS – these include preventative measures, improved social care to help discharge patients, investment in the workforce, and specific diagnostic and treatment centres.  

Rhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru’s Health and Care spokesperson:

“When we consider the scale of problems within the NHS, be it waiting times for diagnosis and treatment or ambulance delays, we have to think of the health and care system as a whole, and the truth is that all too often it is in gridlock. We are seeing poor patient flow through the system, together with a lack of capacity to deal with demand.

“To deal with demand, there has to be a revolution in attitudes towards prevention. To improve patient flow we have to strengthen social care. And to deal with capacity, we must accelerate investment in workforce and in specific measures like diagnostic and treatment centres that can be protected from emergency pressures. Without all of this, we’ll keep going around in circles.”