HOSPITAL workers have been praised for coping well with large rises in emergency admissions.
The focus in recent weeks has been on queues of ambulances outside the Accident and Emergency department at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.
There have been a number of complaints about lengthy waits to receive A&E treatment but managers of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) say there has been “significant pressure” at Wrexham Maelor and other regional hospitals and staff have coped “tremendously well” to deliver clinical care in difficult circumstances.
A BCUHB spokesman said: “We have faced significant pressures over the last week in relation to emergency attendances to our main hospitals.
“The numbers of emergency attendances do fluctuate during the day, and from day to day, with periods of high demand which can cause difficulties in ensuring patients move through the hospital system in the normal way.
“Our planned changes to community services, such as rolling out the home enhanced care service, will provide alternatives to hospital admission and will therefore reduce pressure on emergency admissions and beds in the acute and community hospitals.
“Releasing resources from some inpatient facilities will allow us to develop a more flexible, responsive service across North Wales that avoids the need for hospital admission.
“This is the type of care we know patients and their families want to receive.”
On Tuesday, March 5, nine ambulances were photographed queuing outside Wrexham Maelor Hospital.
There have been many long delays for treatment at hospitals including the case of the 94-year-old mother of Bagillt councillor Mike Reece, a member of Flintshire Council. She waited for more than three hours in an ambulance outside Glan Clwyd Hospital at Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire.
Hospitals across Wales say they have been experiencing “unprecedented” levels of admissions.
l Watchdog ‘happy to talk’ about health cuts – see page 4