'One person said that they were in A&E for nearly twenty hours waiting for a bed to become available'

MP for Wrexham

Continuing my health care campaign, last week I called on the Welsh Government to launch an inquiry into the management of health services in Wrexham. Over the Christmas period, it was revealed that North Wales had, in November 2021, the worst wait times at A&E in Wales and that the Maelor Hospital was the worst performing hospital in the region. In November, only 42 per cent of those that attended A&E at the Maelor were seen within four hours and only 76 per cent were seen within twelve.

To add to this, as part of my campaign I have heard many personal stories from Wrexham residents, which have further illustrated why it is important that the Welsh Government undertakes a serious inquiry into what is going wrong. As an example, one person said that they were in A&E for nearly twenty hours waiting for a bed to become available on a medical ward and a paramedic recently told me that they have previously waited on the forecourt of A&E at the Maelor, with a patient in the Ambulance, for the whole of their shift because the patient couldn’t be accommodated in hospital. Many residents are also concerned about access to their GPs, citing long wait times to speak to their surgery and a lack of GPs as major concerns.

These issues persist despite the Welsh Government bringing the health board out of special measures in November 2020, when we were promised that improvements would be made. Since this decision, waiting times and performances have only gone backwards across the NHS in North Wales and Wrexham. Whilst I appreciate that we must make allowances for the impact of the pandemic on health services, it goes without saying that residents deserve better than this. Health and social care staff, who I know have worked incredibly hard throughout the pandemic and are focussed on patient-centred practice, deserve better too. Last week, I raised the issue with the Leader of the House of Commons and this week I hope to speak about these issues at the Welsh Grand Committee in Parliament. To let me know what you think about healthcare access in Wrexham, add your name to my campaign: www.sarahatherton.org.uk/health-care-wrexham.

At the end of last week, I also wrote to residents in Llay to update them on the closure of the Gresford Road. I was disappointed that Council Officers did not update me, or residents, on their plans to close the road, despite the fact that I had meet with Officers only the week before and had discussed progress on the Crown crossroads upgrade and the Aldi development.

I will continue to make sure Llay residents’ concerns are heard and listened to by the Council and I will be urging the Council to make sure they communicate plans to residents more effectively in future. In due course, I will also be meeting with Aldi at their site in Llay and I look forward to updating constituents on the progress Aldi and the Council are making very soon.

Finally, residents in Wrexham should have received, or will be receiving, my constituency-wide update through their letter boxes. This is a great opportunity for constituents to find out what I have been doing as your Member of Parliament over the past year – from highlighting your concerns about healthcare, to making our town a safer and more welcoming place to live, work and shop.

As always if you are resident in Wrexham and need my assistance with any local or national issue, please make contact with me by emailing sarah.atherton.mp@parliament.uk.