Nursing staff in Wales liken emergency department to a ‘war-zone’

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

Nursing staff in Wales have described the “harsh environment” of their emergency department, comparing it to a ‘war-zone’.

Their views were relayed by colleagues, who told Swansea Bay University Health Board members what it was like to work at Morriston Hospital.

The emergency care nurses likened it to working in a war zone and being in a third-world country, the meeting heard.

Harsh environment

Charlotte Gallivan – a senior sister – described the emergency department as a harsh environment.

“There’s not one shift at the moment that I don’t have a staff nurse crying,” she said.

Ms Gallivan said colleagues were under “immense pressure” and didn’t feel they could give patients the care they wanted.

Verbal abuse from patients and relatives, she said, was rising and more security would help.

Low staff

Ms Gallivan described having to choose between three acutely unwell patients after managing to find a bed for one of them, leaving the other two in “serious danger”.

She said the department ran low on staff daily and the waiting room was now a clinical area.

Admissions have also risen, with 7,523 emergency admissions to Morriston Hospital in December 2024 – 242 per day on average – compared to 6,889 in December 2023.

One patient last week, she said, was waiting 146 hours and during that time needed nursing care.

She added: “If we just had a few more staff, we could safely look after these patients.”

‘Knock-on effect’

Senior nurse Joanne Fowler claimed that staffing levels began to fall last April.

Colleagues left for other Band 5 nursing roles, she said, and several went to work at Llanelli’s Prince of Wales Hospital.

“This has a huge a knock-on effect,” she said.

Senior nursing staff were spread thinly, said Ms Fowler, and newly-qualified nurses needed a lot of support.

She said she often ran out of trolleys and oxygen, ran short of “cardiac leads” and encountered “very surreal” situations.

‘War zone’

Ms Gallivan and Ms Fowler said nursing colleagues compared their work to being in a war zone, a third-world country, and playing Russian roulette.

A representative from patient watchdog group, Llais, said the picture portrayed was similar to other emergency departments in Wales and there needed to be more capacity within social care to alleviate hospital pressures.

Chief executive Abigail Harris said she had recently visited the emergency department and she had seen what had been described in the meeting.

Long-term plan

Ms Harris said the health board would work hard to try to create more space as a short-term measure, and a longer-term plan to redevelop the emergency department was being drawn up.

This latter scheme has been estimated to cost £20m to £30m, according to a separate estates report.

Ms Harris said: “We are having to juggle that we have got a significant financial deficit that we have to bring back under control, and the mechanism we have got is to ensure we don’t make our services unsafe.”

She added: “It’s about having staff who want to be permanent members of the team.”

Health board chairwoman Jan Williams said: “We give you our word that we will take action.”