The issues that the Welsh Ambulance Service is facing have been making headlines for months. Waits are incredibly long with November seeing records broken for all the wrong reasons when more than 60% of the most urgent 'red' calls were not reached within the target time of eight minutes.
Behind the figures some of Wales’ most vulnerable people are suffering as a result. Whether it is a 93-year-old left 'screaming in pain' during a 25-hour wait for an ambulance or a pensioner with a broken hip strapped to a bin lid and driven to A&E due to a lack of vehicles there is a real human cost to this crisis. Even once patients get to the hospital this is often just the start of their issues with some patients waiting within an ambulance for almost two days before being admitted into a hospital's emergency department.
Though everyone is aware that the ambulance service is under “pressure” the reality of why there are such issues is actually very complex and not entirely to do with the Welsh Ambulance Service itself. To try and break down exactly what is going on WalesOnline has gone through the latest data and spoken to chief executive Jason Killens about the situation. This is everything you need to know about what is happening with the Welsh Ambulance Service (WAS) and how it can be fixed.
