MARK Drakeford believes a new project at the Grange University Hospital will help tackle the backlog of ambulances waiting outside A&E.

The NHS has been under pressure since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and patient flow problems in health and social care have been blamed for queues of ambulances outside hospital entrances, waiting to drop off their patients.

Delyth Jewell, a regional Senedd member from Gwent, said "after waiting for an ambulance for hours, when people get to hospital, there are often no spare beds, leaving them waiting outside for more hours".

She added: "One constituent of mine's elderly mother was recently held in an ambulance for 15 hours after she suffered a fall.

"I am concerned that ambulances are effectively being used as waiting rooms."

First minister Mr Drakeford said the pressure on the NHS "continues to be very challenging" but "there is some good news in this area".

He cited a recent project at Cardiff's health board where, working with paramedics, health leaders had "achieved a 50 per cent reduction in the number of ambulance hours lost to handover at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) between January of this year and January of last year".

Mr Drakeford said "the lessons that are there to learn from that successful experiment are now being spread to other parts of Wales". 

He added: "Since the start of this month, a new safe-flow model has been in place at the Grange University Hospital, drawing very much on the work that has proved successful at UHW."

Ms Jewell also raised concerns about "the impact that so many ambulances waiting with their engines running is having on air pollution levels outside our hospitals".

Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government was working on "improving the infrastructure at the hospital front door" and had already made "very significant investment" to start converting the nation's ambulance fleet to electric vehicles.