Ambulance waiting times ‘chaos’ in Wales highlighted by Pembrokeshire politician

Ambulance waiting times ‘chaos’ in Wales has been highlighted at the Senedd, with a Pembrokeshire politician citing an example of local-based ambulances recently having to leave Tenby to attend a matter in Swansea, leaving the locality without adequate cover.
Senedd Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire Samuel Kurtz raised the concerns with the First Minister, as to what action the Welsh Government is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times.
“Just recently a Pembrokeshire-based emergency medical technician wrote to me expressing his frustration that Pembrokeshire-based ambulances often leave the Hywel Dda health board area - called to Waunarlwydd from Tenby, then to another emergency 60 miles away, he eventually ended up delayed, unable to offload patients outside of Morriston Hospital,” stated Mr Kurtz.
“This left Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire without adequate ambulance cover, and is sadly a common occurrence.
“Since 2015 amber response times have gone from 11 minutes to over 113 minutes - a damning indictment of the Labour Government's failure and its mishandling of the health services here in Wales.
“So, will you just admit it - the Welsh Labour Government haven't got a clue how to improve health services in Wales?” added the Conservative member.
First Minister, Eluned Morgan, responded that it was important to recognise, that the issue also reflected a ‘massive increase’ in demand from the public in the Hywel Dda region.
“October saw the joint second-highest number of red calls on record ever. So, let me just be clear that also what's really significant is that, despite that massive increase, they reported the best ambulance performance in Wales for response to red calls within eight minutes in October,” she stated.
©SeneddTV