HEALTH minister Jane Hutt will find out how the NHS in Gwent is coping with emergency pressures this winter when she pays a visit on Thursday.

But with the whistlestop tour just five days before troubleshooter Professor Brian Edwards is due to report to Ms Hutt on the serious problems with orthopaedic waiting times in Gwent, she can expect a bumpy ride.

Her timetable includes a meeting with consultants at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport - and they will be keen to find out what she is willing to do to help solve capacity problems across a range of specialties.

Only last week Ken Shute, a general surgeon at the Royal Gwent, said the fact that operations were being cancelled because of bed shortages was unacceptable.

"Week after week I have to cancel the operations of people who are suffering and have made careful arrangements," he said. "I am sick and tired of it."

He is the latest front line surgeon to call on the Assembly to provide more cash to allow hospitals to attack waiting lists.

Ms Hutt's visit is part of a number she is making around Wales to see first-hand how the NHS is tackling emergency pressures. An extra £5 million has been made available Wales-wide this year, to try to ensure such pressures do not cause winter chaos in hospitals. Gwent has received £900,000.

Emergency pressures in Gwent, especially since the end of the summer, have contributed to the problem with tackling long-term orthopaedic patients - people who have waited more than 18 months for treatment.

At the end of July no one had waited more than 18 months for such treatment, in line with Assembly-set targets. But by October 31, 173 out of 205 patients across Wales who had waited longer than 18 months for such treatment were from Gwent, triggering Professor Edwards' appointment.

He is due to report back to Ms Hutt on Tuesday, January 14, with his verdict on attempts to bring the maximum orthopaedic treatment waiting time back to 18 months.

Ms Hutt begins her Thursday visit at Ebbw Vale Hospital, where she will hear about Blaenau Gwent's Community Re-Ablement Project, which aims to ease bedblocking by enabling elderly patients to receive treatment at home.

She will then visit the Royal Gwent before going to the South East Wales regional headquarters of the Wales Ambulance Service NHS Trust.