DELAYS in discharging “clinically fit” patients from hospital has led to “considerable delays” in the Welsh NHS, one Welsh NHS Confederation boss has said.

Waiting lists have topped 750,000 for the first time in the latest NHS Wales performance figures, with 589,000 individual patients waiting for treatment.

Darren Hughes, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation said the figures show the Welsh health service is “under considerable, sustained strain” heading into “one of the most challenging winters for decades”.

“The statistics show continuing high levels of demand, including a high percentage of life-threatening calls to the ambulance service, mirroring what NHS leaders are telling us about more patients coming forward with more acute needs requiring advanced care, especially in mental health. 

“We know how hard NHS and social care staff work every day, fighting fires while trying to find solutions to improve outcomes for thousands of patients – 93,000 patient pathways concluded in August. 

“We’re hearing that in some hospitals in Wales there are considerable delays in the patient pathway, with nearly half of hospital beds taken up by those clinically fit to be discharged. This means fewer operations can take place, fewer beds for patients coming into emergency departments and less capacity for ambulances, impacting individual patient’s experience and outcomes.  

“We must not lose sight of the fact that these are not just targets, numbers or percentages - these are real people and each person on the waiting list needs to be considered as an individual. 

“Health leaders are incredibly concerned about how they will be able to continue running many important patient services while plugging gaps in funding, although of course they will continue to do all they can to manage services as efficiently and effectively as possible while trying to meet huge rising demand from patients. These whole-system issues require a whole-system effort.”

Shadow health minister and Welsh Conservative Russell George blamed “a lack of leadership” from the Welsh Government for the latest figures.

South Wales Argus: Shadow health minister Russell George MS.Shadow health minister Russell George MS.

“The failure of the Labour Government to prepare for pandemic recovery continues to be felt by the people of Wales as they experience the longest treatment waiting lists, ambulance delays, and A&E waits in Britain,” he said.

“This failure to plan for the re-opening of hospitals has meant the delivery of healthcare is out of control – staff are doing their best to cope with demand but a lack of leadership from the centre has meant minister leaving the NHS totally adrift.

“For over two years we have called for surgical hubs to reduce the backlog, something backed by the Royal College of Surgeons. The Conservatives did in England but Labour did not in Wales. Now 59,000 people wait over two years for treatment in Wales, but there are no such waits in England.

“This is the cost of Labour – now they need to get a grip on the NHS and stop breaking all the wrong records.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Progress continues to be made on the longest waits and we have seen a reduction in the number of patient pathways waiting more than two years for treatment for the fifth month in a row.

“Urgent and emergency care staff remain under intense pressure, and we are working with health and social care service leaders to support improvements.

“We acknowledge ambulance performance is not where we, NHS Wales nor the public expect it to be and we are driving a whole system response to support improvement.

“We expect health boards to take ownership and immediately reduce ambulance patient handover delays while working with social care services to improve timeliness of patient transfers home from hospital.”