Veronica German, Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Health and Wellbeing and AM for South Wales East is ‘encouraged’ to see that there has been an improvement in ambulance waiting times across South East Wales but in certain areas this is not reflected.
Veronica German said: “After the disappointing drop in May I was encouraged to see that the response time figures for South Wales East improved for the month of June, if only marginally.
“I’m glad to see improvements in response times almost across the board in Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent and Newport and I welcome the work that has been done in these regions to solve this problem.
“However, despite the continued hard work of the Welsh Ambulance Service, whole areas of South Wales East have suffered a decline in response times.
“The ambulance service in Wales has established new systems to work more efficiently but they are facing a constant battle against hand over times. Ambulances queuing outside hospitals mean they are not available to take calls.”
Torfaen has seen nearly a 3% drop in the number of calls responded to within eight minutes and Merthyr Tydfil has suffered a decline of nearly 4% in the number of calls responded to within ten minutes.
“The Welsh Assembly Government needs to address this issue. In Caerphilly alone the number of calls being answered within 14, 18 or 21 minutes dropped by nearly 5% in June to 58.7%.
“This falls far below the Government’s own target of 65%, which is not good enough.
“It shouldn’t be a post code Lottery. No matter where a person lives, when someone dials 999 there should be a fast efficient service that is focused on the patient.
“It is time that the Labour-Plaid Government looked at the wider issue and addressed the system as a whole so that the ambulance service can work more effectively with the hospitals.
“I will continue to apply pressure to the Government to make sure that ambulance response times remain a priority and the people of South Wales East get the ambulance service they deserve” Veronica commented.
