First Minister hasn’t watched shocking S4C programme exposing shocking reality of corridor care in north Wales hospitals

Emily Price

Wales’ First Minister has been sharply criticised for admitting that she hasn’t watched a shocking undercover S4C programme that revealed the reality of corridor care in north Wales hospitals.

On Monday (March 17), the Welsh language channel’s current affairs television show ‘Y Byd ar Bedwar’ exposed that almost 90,000 patients had been treated in corridors in Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board hospitals over the last three years.

On average, patients spent almost 10 hours in non-clinical areas at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd last year, the longest of all hospitals in the region, while one patient at Ysbyty Gwynedd remained in a corridor for over five days.

S4C recounted the “frightening” experience of a 68-year-old man who spent 44 hours in the corridor of Glan Clwyd Hospital’s emergency department in Denbighshire last year.

Mr Jones attended the hospital after suffering severe stomach pains.

After being assessed by the triage team, he was placed on a corridor where he remained for nearly two days before receiving a diagnosis and an operation.

He described the conditions as resembling a “war-zone” and said he feared he might die while waiting on the corridor.

During First Minister’s Question’s on Tuesday (March 17), Baroness Eluned Morgan was pressed on the shows’ revelations.

‘Troubling’

Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar described the programme as “deeply troubling” and called on Morgan to admit that the NHS in Wales was in a “full blown crisis”.

Responding, Morgan admitted she hadn’t yet watched the investigative programme.

Speaking in the Senedd’s Chamber, she said: “I didn’t watch the programme – but I have heard about the situation in Glan Clwyd.

“I think the situation is absolutely unacceptable. It is deeply upsetting for the people who are waiting to be treated there.

“Let me be clear, corridor care is unacceptable – that is the position of the Welsh Government.”

‘Disappointing’

Tory leader Millar hit back saying it was “disappointing” that the First Minister hadn’t watched the show and wouldn’t accept that the NHS was in “crisis”.

He said: “It’s a word that not just I am using, but other people are using too.

“There was a nurse from Ysbyty Gwynedd who was interviewed – they said that the NHS is in crisis, that corridor care is a daily occurrence when it never used to be.

“That staff now feel ashamed of the sub-standard quality of care that they are being forced to provide.”

Millar added: “Patients are telling you that there’s a crisis. Staff are telling you that there’s a crisis.

“The Royal College of Emergency Medicine is telling you that there is a crisis.

“The Royal College of Nursing is saying that there’s a crisis, as is the British Medical Association.”

Final moments

Earlier this month, BBC Wales reported how an elderly woman had died alone in an A&E corridor in full view of patients at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.

Nadia Wainwright said she witnessed the woman’s final moments before a paramedic intervened and placed a blanket over her face after she had died.

Millar called on the First Minister to apologise to staff, patients and their loved ones.

Morgan responded saying she worried “every day” about people who had been failed by the NHS in Wales.

She said: “I think about the people who are putting their heart and soul into trying to support people in our age – those over 100,000 people who are working day in, day out to try and improve the lives of people in our communities.

“But, yes, I worry about the people who are not getting the care that they need and deserve. The pressure on the system is quite, quite extraordinary.”

Speaking after FMQs’ Darren Millar said his party would declare a health emergency if elected this year to trigger immediate action across the NHS in Wales.

Harm

He said: “Across Wales, emergency care is deteriorating, corridor care has become the norm, and people are coming to harm and dying as a result.

“The Welsh Government’s strategy to address these issues isn’t working.

“Staff are demoralised and feel unsupported, while patients are being stripped of their dignity and being put at risk.

“It is shameful that the First Minister declined to apologise to those affected by corridor care, and it is beyond belief that she continues to deny that our NHS is the midst of a full-blown crisis.

“The First Minister cannot fix a problem she refuses to admit exists. It’s time to pull the rip-cord and declare a health emergency to surge bed capacity, end the scandal of corridor care, and prevent patients dying needlessly in hallways and cupboards in our hospitals across Wales.”