The issue of ambulance delays outside the Grange hospital - which was covered in the South Wales Argus a couple of weeks ago - are a concern for us all.
It is no wonder that ambulances are unable to respond to many 999 calls in a timely manner when they are tied up outside hospitals. For crews to be spending, on average, more than 2,000 hours a month outside the Grange – which was meant to herald an improvement in care - shows just how severe the problem is.
These hold-ups cause frustration in people seeking medical treatment as soon as possible, not to mention the family and friends of those patients. Inevitably, this frustration boils over in anger from time to time and ambulance crews and hospital staff bear the brunt of this. It is no wonder that morale within the NHS is low with things the way they are.
When these figures were presented to me, I was shocked and called upon the Welsh Government to urgently review the bottlenecks in the system. It is vital that improvements are made ahead of the predicted busy winter for the NHS. These peak months for the NHS may be the busiest of all this coming winter due to the cost-of-living crisis which will have a detrimental impact on health outcomes, particularly for the most vulnerable.
Some of the most vulnerable who will be adversely affected by the cost-of-living crisis include our veterans. I was proud to speak on behalf of veterans in a Senedd debate this week timed to mark of Remembrance Day.
Research from the Royal British Legion has found that working-age adults in the veteran community are more likely to be sick or disabled than other UK adults.
Already long social housing waiting lists are made even longer when accessible housing is required. There have been reports that some veterans have had to wait a decade for a fully accessible property to become available. That is unacceptable.
I also used my contribution in the debate to call for the need to learn from the mistakes of the past and to avoid putting our armed service personnel in harm’s way in unnecessary conflicts.
We should never forget the human cost of war and should seek peaceful resolutions wherever that is possible.
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