Delayed admittance to A+E unacceptable

10.20.47am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 17th Oct 2006

Welsh Liberal Democrat AM for Brecon and Radnorshire, Kirsty Williams, has expressed her concern at the long waits faced by ambulances at A+ E departments.

The local AM has written to the Chief Executive of Hereford Hospital, after learning that delays in admitting patients were resulting in ambulances waiting in hospital car parks for hours at a time.

Ms Williams said: "When patients cannot immediately be admitted to A+E, they are being denied access to the treatment they need. We have precious few ambulances in circulation as it is, so when they are being held up at hospitals, it means there is one fewer available to answer an emergency call in the constituency. Ambulance crews must find this extremely frustrating, and I do have real concerns about the impact this has on patient safety and ambulance response times.

I am looking forward to the Chief Executive's response, and hope that measures will be put in place to improve the situation in the A+E department."

Notes:

Ms Williams' attention was drawn to this issue by Montgomeryshire CHC, who gave a recent example of an ambulance waiting at Hereford Hospital for over four hours. The hospital regularly treats patients from Ms Williams' constituency.