‘Beyond intolerable handover delays causing patients to die directly and indirectly as a consequence’ – Senior Coroner

‘Beyond intolerable handover delays causing patients to die directly and indirectly as a consequence’ – Senior Coroner

The Senior South Wales Central Coroner, Graeme Hughes, has written a Prevention of Future Deaths Report (Regulation 28) specifically to the First Minister, an exceedingly rare escalation, following the tragic death of Valerie Hill, who died of pneumonia following a fall and a 14 hour wait for an ambulance, writing:

“It is possible that this long lie exacerbated known medical conditions” and cited “long ambulance handover times across Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board and inadequate systems in place to effectively manage patient flow” as possible contributors to the long lie.

At First Minister’s Questions (FMQs) today, Darren Millar MS challenged the First Minister to address the Coroner’s call for action on his acute concerns that delays have become “beyond intolerable”, causing patients to die “directly and indirectly as a consequence” and that these same risks remain in the system.

There have been 25 health-related Prevention of Future Deaths reports since Eluned Morgan became First Minister last year.

Darren Millar MS has repeated Welsh Conservative calls for the declaration of a health emergency, particularly given Hughes’ decision to cite the Chief Executive of NHS Wales’ calls for “a health and social care system leadership response… on a par to the Covid-19 response”.

Commenting, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar MS said:

“These concerns from a Senior Coroner are shocking and a damning indictment of the Labour Health Minister turned First Minister. Her failure to address them today was unacceptable.

“We have had 25 health-related Prevention of Future Deaths reports since Eluned Morgan became First Minister, including last week’s that again cited ambulance handover delays. It is a sad fact that in life and death situations, you only have a 50/50 chance of an ambulance arriving within the target time.

“The Welsh Labour Government must accept our calls to declare a health emergency to ensure that the entire apparatus of Government is mobilised to respond to the crisis in our NHS, just as we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic, and prevent further lives being lost.”

 

Watch Darren’s contribution in the Welsh Parliament below:

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