Shocking footage shows sea of ambulances queuing outside Welsh hospital
Emily Price
The Welsh Conservatives have shared shocking video footage of ambulances filled with sick patients queuing up outside a Welsh hospital.
The footage shot outside the Grange Hospital in Cwmbran on Saturday (January 4) was posted online by Shadow Health Secretary, James Evans who had spent a shift with the Welsh Ambulance Service.
During the video, he could be seen wearing a high vis jacket whilst silently walking through rows of ambulances waiting outside the Grange Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department.
‘Porters’
The Conservative MS said the vehicles were being used as an “extension of the A&E waiting room” whilst the paramedics were “acting as porters” ferrying patients to relevant departments.
Mr Evans said: “The problem is, ambulances will get to the hospital, ambulance crews take the patients inside, they get assessed, then the patient is told to go back to the ambulance because there’s no where to put them. It was absolutely crazy there, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
🚨 Labour’s horrendous ambulance crisis 🚨@JamesEvansMS witnessed 18 ambulances parked outside the Grange Hospital in Cwmbran. 👇@Jeremy_Miles what is being done to address these scenes?
It’s clear that only the Welsh Conservatives can #FixWales and restore the Welsh #NHS. pic.twitter.com/XntQus9wDi
— Welsh Conservatives 🏴 (@WelshConserv) January 4, 2025
Mr Evans says he counted 18 vehicles outside the Grange – but the health board has claimed the number of ambulances parked up at the site peaked at 14.
The shadow health secretary said he saw one patient who had been waiting for 10 hours and another who had been left waiting for treatment for 20 hours.
Last month, fans were installed outside the hospital’s entrance doors to disperse fuel fumes emitted by queuing ambulances idling with their engines running.
‘Frustrated’
Paying tribute to paramedics and technicians, Mr Evans said crews had become “completely frustrated” by what was going on.
He said: “Being a paramedic is a vocation, not just a job, for them. They want to be out on the road, offering emergency assistance to people and then getting them into hospital for further care.
“Instead, they are being forced to sit parked up for hours, with patients in the back of their vehicles unable to hand over to get the care they need because the hospitals cannot accept them.”
The Welsh Ambulance Service declared a critical incident last week after more than 340 emergency 999 calls were left waiting to be answered.
Chief executive Jason Killens said the increased demand was a result of flu, Covid and other respiratory viruses circulating through the winter.
Critical incident
The critical incident was stood down on New Year’s Day, but the ambulance service says “significant pressures” remain.
Health Minister Jeremy Miles has been criticised for not commenting on the issue. He is expected to give an oral statement in the Senedd on Tuesday.
Baroness Morgan visited hospitals in Merthyr Tydfil, Llantrisant, Bridgend, Withybush, Glangwili and Cardiff on Thursday (Jan 2) where she gifted ambulance crews and A&E doctors boxes of Christmas chocolates.
She has urged the Welsh public to support NHS staff by only attending A&E in a “genuine emergency”.
Mr Evans has called for Jeremy Miles to step in and address the “growing chaos” because although the gift of chocolates is a kind gesture – “it isn’t enough”.
He said: “What’s telling is that Eluned Morgan is going around the hospitals, she’s the first minister – but where is the health minister? What is Jeremy doing?
“The situation yesterday was horrendous. Some patients had been waiting in ambulances for hours. I know from speaking to constituents that waits of up to 12 hours are not uncommon.
“A Freedom of Information request revealed that one patient waited for 24 hours in the back of an ambulance earlier this year in Wales. This is unacceptable.
“The ambulance service declared a critical incident earlier this week. Yet, since then, we have heard nothing from the health minister.
“He needs to get out, to see the reality of the situation for himself, acknowledge the crisis, and tell us what he plans to do to fix it.”
Solutions
Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, Jason Killens said: “I’d like to thank Mr Evans for the time spent with crews last Friday, as well as the in-person meeting yesterday with Mr Evans and Welsh Conservative party leader Darren Millar to discuss their concerns directly.
“The pressures upon our ambulance service and the urgent and emergency care system as a whole are well-documented, and we continue to do what is within our gift to improve the situation, working with commissioners and Welsh Government on proposals for further, meaningful change.”
The Welsh Government says its £25m ‘six goals for urgent and emergency care’ programme is helping people avoid admission and that health boards and local authorities are focusing on preventative solutions to support people at home.
A spokesperson said: “Urgent and emergency care services across Wales continue to see high levels of demand this winter.
“We are urging people to only call 999 in the event of a life-threatening emergency and to carefully consider where to go for care. For urgent care needs, NHS 111 Wales can be accessed 24/7 online or telephone service for advice and signposting.
“Increase in flu cases has further added pressure during the Christmas period and resulted in action being taken by health boards including prevention and control measures.
“We are continuing to drive our 50-day challenge to integrate health and social care services and help improve patient flow through hospitals and tackle ambulance handover delays.
“We have invested more than £180m in additional funds this year to help safely manage more people in the community, avoid ambulance transport and admission to hospital focusing on the right care, in the right place, first time.”
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Why would Eluned Morgan gift chocolates to ambulance drivers?
I think they would prefer an empty A&E so they can drop off their patients
Why won’t the hospital management team face the public. After working in the NHS for 40 years the last people you hear anything from is the high level managers who stay at home and make decisions there . Senior nursing managers are exactly the same they hide behind closed doors ask any of the hard working front line teams .
‘The Welsh Conservatives have shared shocking video footage of ambulances filled with sick patients queuing up outside a Welsh hospital.’ I know well enough that ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’, but after an adult lifetime of pretty rude good health – my manager in my last pre-retirement job used to quip that she never needed in supervision to allude to my sickness record because I was hardly ever off ill! – at the age of 69 and a half I started to develop certain of the chronic health problems which tend to accompany older age. At the time my… Read more »
This is a symptom of the chronic underfunding of the NHS going back as far as 1979. I recall over the years regular news reports of wards and entire hospitals being closed. It was incredibly rare to hear of wards being opened, nevermind new hospitals being built!
Instead of adequately funding the NHS there has been reform after reform, the “internal market,” greater use of private providers and an incentive to cut frontline healthcare to share “savings!”
It is 4.10am on 7th, been at Grange since 3.45pm on 6th, the current wait time for the 28 patients in ED 14hrs 6m, with my wife sent to ED with very highBlood Pressure of 212/110, by GP, at 3am this morning now 190/112 no sign of seeing clinician over 12hrs later.
That’s when Edwina and Jeremy ought to be touring the hospitals.
How’s it going? Do please give us an update. The first problem you identify is that the GP instantly offloads to the hospital. GPs are doctors, they should be able to make their own analysis, monitoring, prescribing and evaluation. How did they manage pre-1948? Bring back GP beds, employ well-qualified nurses within surgeries, turn surgeries into proper clinics with clinical support from specialists if necessary – x-rays, scans and test results can be easily shared digitally. Hospitals are for acute interventions. More diagnostic work should be done in advance, patients should be seen at home or in a local clinic… Read more »
Our government tells us they can’t afford pensions, NHS or the day to day needs to keep us safe but they can throw money fighting wars they have got involved in or waste billions battling a global warming farce. They disgust me
Don’t worry, very soon 50% more MS’s will be debating this health crisis, each one from a previously unheard of Welsh named constituency- where ARE we going.
There was money for 20mph, money for trees in Uganda, money for active travel, money to prop up a failing airport, money for a farm, money for lobster kebabs on their junkets… there has always been money even if the level of cash isn’t where it should be but decisions taken by arrogant MSs chose not to invest into the NHS. We haven’t had NHS dentists up this way since way before COVID and hospital waiting times you get better before you see a doctor in Betsi region.