Health Minister ‘very concerned’ over damning report into Ysbyty Glan Clwyd’s emergency department
Wales’ Health Minister has said she is “very concerned” after reading a damning report into the running of an emergency department at a North Wales hospital.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) was told this week that it must take “strong and decisive action” to resolve the ongoing problems at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.
Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) released their findings last week after conducting an unannounced, follow-up inspection at the hospital’s emergency department in November.
The department at the hospital in Bodelwyddan was designated a ‘Service Requiring Significant Improvement’ in May 2022 following an initial inspection.
In the latest report, issues raised included inspectors having to support one patient who was unwell and needed help as no staff could be located.
Whilst they noted there were some improvements in November, compared to earlier in the year, these were minimal and did not provide HIW with enough evidence to be able to remove it from the category.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan was questioned over the report in the Senedd yesterday by Vale of Clwyd MS Gareth Davies.
The Conservative politician said: “I’ve read the HIW report into emergency services at Glan Clwyd Hospital today and I’m shocked.
“I’m shocked that this is the third inspection within a 12-month period and we’re seeing scant evidence of any progress being made on the recommendations supplied by the inspectorate.
“Let me make it clear that this is no attack on the front-line workers in the department, who are working way above and beyond their job descriptions, but they are firefighting.
“They are firefighting a high concentration of acutely unwell patients, staff sickness and a lack of space in the department to practise safely. But why are staff going off sick?
“There is good evidence that staff are going off sick because they are overworked, stressed, burnt out and becoming unwell, and it’s a vicious cycle with the issue not being solved. The consequence of that is the perennial hiring of agency staff, which then costs a fortune.
“The people of the Vale of Clwyd, Denbighshire, Conwy, Flintshire and across north Wales have had enough of bad news after bad news within this health board, and are tired of years and years of no action and deflection of blame and accountability.
“When you combine this with the recent news that Betsi Cadwaladr has been returned to special measures in the last month, with the chair of the board and independent members being forced to resign by you, instead of the executives, then you can hardly blame my constituents for feeling this way.”
Over the three days of their visit, inspectors found that there were significant challenges with patient flow through the department.
As a result some patients were spending in excess of 48 hours in the department.
On day two of the inspection in November, the department was short of both nurses and healthcare assistants, meaning staff were moved to support the busiest areas of the unit.
However, this meant the corridor area accommodating unwell patients was left unsupervised.
During this time, HIW inspectors had to support one patient who was unwell and needed help, but no staff could be located.
In her response to Mr Davies, Ms Morgan said she accepted the findings of the report and revealed it was one of the reasons why BCUHB was recently put back into special measures.
She said: “Obviously, I’m not happy with the progress that’s happened in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, and, obviously, I did have sight of this report prior to me putting them into special measures.
“I was very concerned, and it was one of the many factors that made me lead to that action that I took.
“Staffing is a real issue. It’s not an issue just in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd; it’s an issue throughout the world. I was in a conference recently in Denmark, and the talk of the entire conference was about how difficult it is to recruit people to the health service.
“I’ve been talking, today, to the medical director in Betsi about what opportunities there are in relation to improving staffing facilities and recruiting more people in Betsi Cadwaladr, but specifically to see what more we can do in relation to providing that additional support in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.
“You’ll be aware that we’ve escalated this particular facility from targeted intervention to special measures; that means that, obviously, with the special measures, we will become more directive.
“It’s really important that people understand that the responsibility for running the health board is still with the chair and the chief executive; I’m not running the health board.”
Ms Morgan said £25m of funding had been made available to support urgent and emergency care across Wales.
An additional allocation of £418,000 was also given to emergency departments run by BCUHB due to the constant demand they face.
She said: “We’ve got a lot of work to do on flow, but I want people, while they’re waiting, to have a more pleasant time than they are now, which is why we’re putting some additional facility and support into the capital and the infrastructure in emergency departments.
“There’s a lot of work to do, clearly, around the staff culture in relation to what is happening in the emergency department. There are, I’m sure, many, many able people; there are people who are working extremely hard.
“But, also, I think it is important to note that this report suggests that some of the staff were not always kind and courteous to patients, and we have to make sure that there is a no-tolerance approach to that.
“It’s clear that things need to change in relation to the culture in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, and in particular in the emergency department. I hope, this time, that the health board will pay heed to this report and that we will not see another poor report from HIW again.”
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