Auditor General's report into A&E

Age Cymru has welcomed the publication of a report by the Auditor General for Wales about emergency care in Wales.

It shows that waiting times in Accident & Emergency departments in hospitals across Wales have increased in recent years.

The report also says too many older patients are waiting longer than 12 hours in A&E.

Commenting on the findings, Graeme Francis - Age Cymru's Head of Policy and Public Affairs, says:

"Providing unscheduled or emergency care, by its very nature, is all about responding to the unplanned and unexpected.

"We appreciate that this is often very challenging and that many factors - such as peak times, difficulties with discharge and problems recruiting doctors in some areas, conspire to make this difficult.

"However Age Cymru is very concerned by this report's findings that too many patients aged 85 and over are in A&E for 12 hours and that there can be long delays in arranging for specialist doctors to assess older patients admitted to A&E.

"We know that A&E is often a poor environment for older patients with multiple or chronic conditions, and that early access to specialist care can make a vital difference.

"We welcome the report's recommendations for increased access to urgent same-day GP appointments and enhancing the skills of ambulance staff to allow them to treat more patients at the scene.

"Age Cymru also supports the call for patient feedback to be collected and used to gauge the effectiveness and appropriateness of the unscheduled care that is provided by the NHS in Wales."

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