Thursday 20 February 2025
Patients, clinicians, and politicians’ united calls to improve urgent and emergency care in Wales must be heeded by the Senedd as the latest data reveals more people waited more than 12 hours in the country’s Emergency Departments last month than ever before.
Monthly data released today – 20 February 2025, by the Welsh Government, shows nearly one in six people waited over 12 hours in the Emergency Departments of major hospitals in January 2025 – a total of 10,384 people.
This figure has more than doubled since 2018 despite the number of people attending hospital having dropped slightly (3.8%) in that period.
Dr Rob Perry, RCEM’s Vice President for Wales said: “Last month saw the highest number of people forced to endure stays of more than 12 hours in Welsh Emergency Departments ever recorded.
“And let me be clear this is not down to winter pressures – although they certainly don’t help, or a result of more people attending.
“This is symptomatic of a whole system which is not functioning as it should. When we can’t move patients to wards, they end up stranded, often for hours on trolleys in corridors, waiting for a bed to become available.
“These long waits are not just inconvenient; they are degrading and dehumanising as was so clearly evidenced by last week’s Llais report which shared the harrowing experiences of ED patients. Long waits are also dangerous.
“The resounding united voices of failed patients and despairing healthcare staff must be heeded. It is only action from the Welsh Government that can rectify this shameful situation.”
The data follows a debate in the Senedd yesterday – Wednesday 19 February, put to the government by the Conservatives, on the elimination of ‘Corridor Care’ – which is when people are treated in inappropriate settings such as corridors and cupboards due to lack of space.
Amplifying harrowing experiences of his constituents, both vulnerable patients and ‘overwhelmed’ hospital staff, Conservative MP for South West Wales Altaf Hussain called the practice “unacceptable”, “nothing new” and “[stemming from] a total and abject failure to plan for demand and no coherent workforce planning.”
His sentiment was echoed by an Audit Wales workforce report released yesterday which highlighted recruitment and retention as major issues and said progress has been has been hampered by an “absence of a national workforce plan.”
The effects are of course felt most acutely by patients. Their experiences compiled in a ‘harrowing’ report released by independent body Llais last week told of waits for treatment for up to 24 hours in departments likened to a “war zone.”
