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Patients are \u201cdying needlessly\u201d at North Wales A&E departments, a group of retired doctors and nurses claim.<\/p>\n
They have launched a petition to \u201cbring back community (hospital) beds and end tragedies in A&E corridors\u201d.<\/p>\n
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They also to \u201cdecrease patient mortality by reducing ambulance and corridor waits\u201d and station \u201csenior medics at the front door\u201d at the region\u2019s three major hospitals at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, and Wrexham Maelor.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s spokesman is retired consultant Jonathan Osborne FRCS, a former ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeon at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.<\/p>\n
According to Mr Osborne the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) remained in special measures, partly due to a lack of community beds.<\/p>\n
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He said: \u201cPatients are dying needlessly whilst the health board and Welsh Government make things worse as they bury their heads in the sand. Completely overwhelmed A&E departments run by harassed staff, packed waiting rooms of sick patients parked on trolleys in the corridors, unable to go up to the wards for want of a bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation is so commonplace that we are no longer shocked and often accept that this is the new norm.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he described the situation as \u201cfar from normal\u201d and not acceptable.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cBCUHB has the worst figures for corridor waits in A&E in Wales, so bad that in January the Royal College of Nursing produced a report \u2018Ending Corridor care in Wales\u2019.<\/p>\n
This states that waiting more than 24 hours should be a \u2018Never event\u2019. In North Wales 46% of patients who need admission wait for more than 24 hours!<\/p>\n
\u201cThese seriously ill patients are kept in corridors with no dignity or privacy, often with no access to toilets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt established that long waits in A&E significantly increase the risk of dying. The clock starts ticking after a wait of as little as four hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to say that the North Wales coroners had \u201cexpressed serious concern\u201d that BCUHB had the \u201chighest rate of preventable deaths\u201d of any organisation in Wales.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThese are recorded in coroners\u2019 section 28 preventable death reports, requiring action by the health board. The health board remains in special measures mainly because of these appalling statistics.<\/p>\n
Mr Osborne went on to claim that the health board had cut the number of beds between 2009 to 2019 from 233 for every person to 315.<\/p>\n
The retired surgeon cited 55 beds lost at Rhyl\u2019s Royal Alexandra Hospital, arguing the 14 community beds planned as part of a refurbished hospital was not enough to plug the gap.<\/p>\n
The health board also had the \u201cworst figures in Wales for delayed discharge of patients from our three big hospitals,\u201d Mr Osborne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, patients who are medically fit and no longer require high-tech care but who still need some support to return to independent living cannot go home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support is not there! They languish in high-dependency beds which are not then available to accommodate the patients waiting for admission from A&E.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe blockage feeds directly back to the acutely ill patients waiting in corridors, in the waiting room, or very often in ambulances stacked up outside the hospital door. This in turn prevents the ambulances from responding to new emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Osborne said there were solutions to the crisis: \u201cOne such is to have senior doctors at the front door of A&E departments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey would recognise and fast-track the seriously ill patients, reducing over-investigation of patients with more minor illnesses, who could be treated appropriately and discharged home.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the longer term, more GPs and community staff were needed. Mr Osborne claimed the situation was being caused by politics. \u201cIf there are solutions, why aren\u2019t the Welsh Government and BCUHB pursuing them and at pace?It is almost certainly politically driven.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Welsh Government is fixated on routine in-patient and outpatients care in order to reduce waiting lists in time for the Assembly (Senedd) elections in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are figures that can be improved quickly by spending large amounts of money in private hospitals. They do not believe the A&E situation can be solved that quickly and it has been put in the \u201ctoo difficult to solve\u201d box.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the Welsh Government and BCUHB are actively escalating the situation. Despite stark figures on bed reductions, Welsh Government bed policy has consistently focused on fewer beds and fewer hospitals believing Wales has too many beds and too many hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there are enough acute hospital beds if they were not full of patients crying out for a community bed and a route home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout addressing this fundamental imbalance in our health care system, this catastrophic situation will only get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe Welsh Government and Health Board need to get serious about solving the problem, especially with an election on the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis chaos will not disappear if it is ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n
The health board\u2019s chief executive Carol Shillabeer said: \u201cWe always welcome feedback from the public and have met a number of times with representatives of the campaign group to understand their concerns as well as their proposed solutions, many of which are already being enacted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrgent and emergency care is a priority for the health board as we acknowledge that too many patients face unacceptably long waiting times and the impact this has on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cA significant amount of work is underway to improve our ability to manage demand within our Emergency Departments (EDs).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes placing clinicians at the front door of our EDs to stream patients to appropriate alternative services upon arrival; improving early access to speciality clinicians; as well as ensuring that people can access timely, safe, and high-quality care closer to home \u2013 so only those whose needs are the most urgent need to attend our EDs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to stress that all ED patients are triaged on arrival, to ensure that those with the most urgent and life-threatening conditions are treated first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this can mean longer waits for those with less critical needs, it is a vital part of maintaining patient safety and prioritising care based on clinical need.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working closely with our partners to address wider pressures across the health and social care system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese include, but are not limited to, challenges associated with discharging patients from hospital wards, which impacts on flow through our hospitals and on our ability to bring patients into and through the ED in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWe want to reassure the public that the safety and wellbeing of patients is at the centre of everything we do. Patients can play their part in supporting our hard-working emergency teams by choosing the most appropriate services for their needs, which may include their GP surgery, minor injury unit, or local pharmacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease visit the health board and NHS Wales 111 website for advice if you are unsure where to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Welsh Government added: \u201cWe have set clear expectations for all health boards, including Betsi Cadwaladr UHB, to reduce emergency department long stays and complete ambulance handovers within 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have invested more than \u00a3200m this year to help manage more people in the community and avoid hospital admissions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWales saw significant improvement in ambulance handover performance in July 2025, with the lowest ambulance hours lost in four years. We continue to support Betsi Cadwaladr UHB and encourage learning from best practices.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can join the Facebook page and sign the petition at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AdminBEDS<\/a><\/p>\n By Richard Evans \u2013 BBC Local Democracy Reporter <\/p>\n