‘We are out of winter but remain in crisis’ RCEM says, as one in seven patients face 12-hour waits in A&Es in Wales

18 May 2023

Responding to the latest Emergency Department performance figures for April 2023 for Wales, Dr Suresh Pillai, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Wales, said:

“We are out of winter but remain in crisis. Nearly one in seven patients are still waiting 12-hours or more from their time of arrival. We are not seeing the time critical improvements that we desperately need.

“The Emergency Care system is not functioning as it should. The whole system continues to be gridlocked. We welcomed initiatives by the Welsh Government to improve discharges, but these are neither reducing bed occupancy nor improving flow through our hospitals. We must see further action to tackle this crisis. Bed occupancy is at an unsafe level because we cannot discharge patients in a timely way, and consequently our Emergency Departments continue to be dangerously overcrowded with patients facing long delays to care.

“We urge the Health Minister to expand bed capacity in Wales; bolster the social care workforce; and ensure we are recruiting and retaining sufficient Emergency Medicine staff in Wales. Our #ResuscitateEmergencyCare has the solutions to tackle the crisis in Emergency Care.”

-ENDS-

Notes to editor

The latest Emergency Department performance figures for April 2023 published by the Welsh government show:

• There were 63,272 attendances to major Emergency Departments,
  • This is 4% less than the previous month (57,418) and 1.9% more than in April 2022 (62,048).
• Overall, 60.1% of patients in major Emergency Departments were admitted, transferred, or discharged within four-hours from arrival (25,269 patients)
• 5% of major Emergency Department attendances waited more than eight hours (14,214 patients)
  • This is means nearly one in four patients were delayed eight hours or more from arrival
• 14% of major Emergency Department attendances waited more than 12-hours (8,852 patients).
  • This means nearly one in seven patients were delayed 12-hours or more
• There were a daily average of 6,473 general and acute beds in service
  • This is eight fewer than the previous month
• Average monthly bed occupancy was 95.05%
• When we compare bed data for April 2022 with April 2023, there has been an average increase of 3.5% in general and acute beds in service. By comparison there has been an 0.8% increase in general and acute beds occupied.
  • This demonstrates that the number of beds in service is not keeping up with patient needs.

RCEM Wales: Emergency Medicine Workforce Census 2023

RCEM: Five priorities for UK Governments to #ResuscitateEmergencyCare