The Welsh Government is planning to spend £2m to install more mobile phone charging points and better WiFi in A&E.
The Welsh NHS is currently under extreme pressure with skyrocketing waiting lists. Accident and emergency is also under great strain with many waiting in ambulances outside of hospital. WalesOnline recently spoke to a grandmother who spent six days sat in a chair in Cardiff's UHW's A&E department.
Speaking at the Welsh Government's press conference health minister Eluned Morgan said that there would be £2m to improve hospital waiting room. She said: "If you’ve ever spent time in a hospital waiting room, you will know how important it is to have somewhere comfortable to sit; access to information and access to food, water and facilities for children. This new funding will also be spent on improving Wi-Fi and providing phone charging points so you can keep friends and family in the loop. So, while we’re taking action to cut waiting times, we’re also improving the experience for people who need to visit hospital this winter."
A recent WalesOnline investigation showed the catastrophe of waiting lists. Figures showing there are more than 60,000 cases in which people are waiting more than two years for treatment whereas in England there are now fewer that 200 open waits for treatment. You can read the special report here.
Baroness Morgan added: "We know that pressure on our health emergency services is intense, and has not decreased significantly over the summer. Earlier this year we invested an extra £3m to recruit more emergency ambulance staff and I’m pleased to say this winter, 100 new ambulance clinicians will start work in Wales. That’s on top of the 250 that we recruited over the past two years and that are already at work.
"These new frontline staff will help to improve response times and provide better care for people in an emergency. We’re working hard to reduce ambulance patient handover times at hospitals. The Welsh Ambulance Service Trust is making changes to ambulance staff rosters to improve efficiency, supporting crews to respond to 999 calls. But demand for emergency services continues to grow. As well as taking action to support emergency care, today I am announcing an extra £2m to improve hospital waiting rooms."
Read more:
- Children grow up in poverty in the shadow of Wales' greatest wealth
Governance in Wales is a convoluted mess that needs to be fixed
The vitally-important questions Welsh police force refuses to answer after top officers dismissed
Welsh MP says the state can't 'catch' everyone and people should help each other
