The health board for the area where an 89-year-old man was taken to hospital strapped to a plank because no ambulances were available has said the flow of patients through its hospitals is blocked because hundreds of medically fit people have nowhere safe to be discharged to.
They have urged people to stay away from emergency departments unless their need is dire.
Relatives of Melvyn Ryan, from Cwmbran, south Wales, took him to Grange University hospital on a plank in the back of a van when they were told there were no crews to help even though he had suffered a broken hip, shoulder and had cut his head.
The Welsh ambulance service said the level of demand, staff sickness – and the length of time it was taking for patients to be handed over at emergency departments – were factors.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which manages the Grange, said: “There are at least 300 patients in our hospitals who are medically fit for discharge but are awaiting some form of support at home before they can leave hospital due to the significant challenges facing social care. This results in a delay for these patients returning home, which, in turn, is affecting the flow of patients through our hospitals.
“We continue to work with our colleagues in the Welsh ambulance service to ensure the timely transfer of patients into our care, and to release ambulance crews to enable them to respond to emergency calls in our communities.”
By 10am on Monday, the board said, more than 100 patients were waiting in the Grange’s emergency department, the numbers swollen as a result of a number of winter viruses sweeping through south-east Wales.
The spokesperson said: “We would ask local people to only visit our emergency department or call 999 if it is absolutely necessary. Anyone who does not have a life-threatening condition will need to be prepared to face an exceptionally long wait.”
Melvyn Ryan’s case led to angry exchanges in the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, when the Conservative opposition leader, Andrew RT Davies, said waiting times in the health service were leading to “despair and despondency week in week out and stories about the people of Cwmbran who had to rely on a plank and van to convey their grandfather to hospital”.
Davies also asked the first minister, Mark Drakeford, why no new offer was made to striking nurses given the powers the Welsh government has over NHS pay and working conditions.
Drakeford argued that increasing pay “would lead to more Cwmbrans” because money would be taken away from the service and put into wages. “The offer we have made is the offer recommended by the independent pay review body. We’ve paid that in full,” he said.
