Senedd Tories call on Welsh Government to declare health emergency

Emily Price

The Senedd is set to debate whether the Welsh Government should declare a health emergency in Wales.

The motion – tabled by the Welsh Conservatives – comes following a report to the First Minister of Wales by a senior coroner for South Wales Central who said many patients are dying because of long waits for ambulances.

Graeme Hughes’ warning in the ‘prevention of future deaths’ report came following the death of an 89-year-old woman who waited 14 hours for an ambulance after a fall.

The Welsh Conservatives said it was unprecedented for a coroner to write directly to the First Minister.

Waiting lists

The party has also raised concerns about spiralling NHS treatment waiting lists.

The latest statistics for Wales show waiting lists remain at 789,929 pathways – nearly 1-in-4 Welsh people.

Two-year NHS waits for treatment have risen again as well to 9,600 in Wales – an almost 15% rise from the previous month

The former health minister Eluned Morgan promised to eliminate these waits for the last two years but has failed to do so.

Recent statistics also show that just 50% of the most serious red calls receive an ambulance response within the eight minute target time – this is down on the previous month.

The proportion of patients waiting less than four hours in Welsh emergency departments has also decreased to 67.1% – despite the target being 95%.

New strategy

Performance against the 62-day target for patient starting cancer treatment has dropped 3% to 60.5% – below the target of 75%.

The average time patient pathways are waiting for treatment in Wales currently stands at 22.5 weeks – compared to 13.3 weeks in England.

In April, Health Minister Jeremy Miles unveiled a new strategy to reduce waiting lists by 200,000, eliminate 2 year waiting times for planned treatment and restore a maximum 8 week wait for tests by March 2026.

But the Welsh Tories say that after declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and a nature emergency in 2021, the Welsh Government should now declare a health emergency.

In the Senedd on Wednesday (July 2), the group will call on the cabinet secretary for health to ensure sufficient resources and the entire apparatus of government is focused on reducing waiting lists.

Commenting ahead of the debate, Welsh Conservative Shadow Secretary for Health and Social Care, James Evans MS said: “Labour is proving in real time that their health strategy is failing abysmally, with progress is in reverse, and waiting list statistics getting worse.

“It’s clear that shovelling taxpayers’ money at the waiting list crisis isn’t enough. We need a whole-of-government approach.

“That’s why the Welsh Conservatives are calling for a health emergency, to ensure that resources and the efforts of the whole Government are targeted at reducing these excessive waits.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The cabinet secretary will be responding to the debate in the Siambr later this afternoon.”