Cardiff: Ambulances waiting over 50 minutes at A&E

Patients are regularly waiting more than 50 minutes in ambulances outside south east Wales A&E departments, reports the BBC today.

The Welsh Ambulance Service have revealed that, over the last three months, an average 106 vehicles a week have waited more than 50 minutes to deliver patients.

'Bed blocking' and people needlessly turning up at casualty is being blamed for the problems. But in February there were delays at two hospitals due to a shortage of beds to cope with the volume of 999 calls.

The University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff claim 160 of its beds were unavailable due to delayed transfers of care, and that the problem was getting worse.

In a statement, it also said a third of emergency patients could be treated by a GP or pharmacist. But often the patient is not the right person to choose where they should be treated, as they are often not aware of the all the treatments required for a particular injury.

The summer months are usually a quiet period for the ambulance service, but a spokesman said it has been encountering problems at major district hospitals.

Mike Cassidy, director of ambulance services in Wales, said how often and how long ambulances were having to wait varied.

He said that since February most serious patients had been admitted immediately while some less serious cases waited three to four hours "on occasions".