Figures obtained by the Welsh Conservatives reveal that the number of staff in Accident & Emergency departments has fallen by 6% in the past four years, during which time Ministers have not once met their target of 95% of A & E patients being seen within four hours.
Figures published today confirm that last month only 89.4% of patients waited less than four hours in A & E, while 98.2% were seen within eight hours.
Darren Millar AM, Shadow Minister for Health and Social Services, said, “These figures show a clear correlation between falling A&E staff numbers and the failure to meet target waiting times.
“Once again, Welsh patients are losing out under Labour’s NHS, forced to wait longer than patients across the border in England.
“It is disgraceful that so many patients in Wales are expected to endure over four and, in some cases, over eight hour waits to be seen in A&E.
“Excessive waiting times in A&E departments can be worrying and distressing especially for children, the elderly and other vulnerable patients.
“The Labour-led Assembly Government has missed its A&E waiting time targets every single month for the past five years.
“The Minister’s aspiration to reduce waiting times is clearly not being helped by the fall in staffing levels in A&E departments and I fear that Labour’s £1billion NHS cuts could put extra pressure on already stretched services.
“NHS staff work tirelessly for the good of the public, but can only work with the resources they are given and too often they are unable to deliver the high standards of care that both staff and patients expect.”
