Key Summary
- Ambulance handover times at Welsh hospitals in June was the lowest since September 2021
- The average time from arrival to triage was 16 minutes – the shortest since February 2021
- However, the number of patients waiting to start treatment has gone up in Wales
There has been a reduction in ambulance handover times at Welsh hospitals, and in June, this was the lowest since September 2021.
The average time from arrival to triage was 16 minutes – the shortest since February 2021.
Welsh health secretary Jeremy Miles said this was the result of his government's focus on improving ambulance patient handover performance.
Welcoming the development, a spokesperson for the Welsh NHS Confederation said, "Thanks to the hard work and determination of staff and leaders, ambulance handover delays came down from 19,700 hours in May to 15,300 hours in June, compared to 22,000 hours in May last year."
“Not only does this speed up the transfer of people into emergency departments, it also releases ambulance crews to respond to 999 calls in the community to those who need it most," the spokesperson added.
Two hospitals in particular have seen dramatic falls in the hours lost by crews waiting for A&E staff to take over the care of patients, BBC reports.
The waits in both Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Swansea Bay health boards have drastically reduced in the last month.
They fell from nearly 2,000 hours to just over 600 in Cwm Taf Morgannwg, and from nearly 2,500 to just under 800 in Swansea Bay.
However, the latest Wales NHS performance figures on the waiting period for patients were disappointing.
In May, there was an increase in the number of patients waiting to start treatment. It is now over 796,100, an increase of around 6,200 from the previous month.
Those waiting more than two years went up by 6.5 percent from the previous month to around 10,300.
The numbers waiting longer than one year for their first outpatient appointment also rose to 75,500.
Welsh NHS Confederation said that sustained capital investment in NHS estates and infrastructure was needed to see "whole-system improvements".
"Without these changes, we will continue to see fluctuating performance across different parts of the health and care system,” the spokesperson added.
