North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has urged the Cabinet Secretary for Health to respond to North Wales calls for the restoration of Minor Injury Units and NHS community beds to take the pressure off Accident and Emergency departments .

Questioning the Cabinet Secretary in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood criticised the Welsh Government for failing to meet A&E targets and said patients and NHS staff in North Wales have told him that reinstating MIUs and community beds would help reduce waiting times at A&E.

He said:

“Welsh Government targets say that 95 per cent of patients should be seen within four hours, and no one should wait 12 hours or more, but in the May figures you refer to, only 82.5 per cent were seen within four hours, in A&E units in North Wales, just 79.9 per cent - the worst in Wales.

“Eight hundred and fifty-six people in North Wales waited more than 12 hours, the highest level in Wales, with Glan Clwyd, I think, the worst performing hospital in Wales on the 12-hour targets.

“You talk about changing figures, well, that was unchanged since November and worse than December 2015. How, therefore, do you respond to the repeated concern amongst staff and patients in North Wales that the removal of Minor Injury Units and NHS community beds added to the pressure on A&E and that a twenty-first century solution must include the restoration of both those services?”

The Cabinet Secretary agreed that the number of 12-hour waits is unacceptable, but said he is “not persuaded, at this point in time, that Minor Injuries Units are part of the solution unless there is evidence that we can staff those properly.”