ACCIDENT and emergency waiting-times in Gwent hospitals stabilised in April and May after a testing winter – but more improvements must be made to reach targets.

The situation at the Royal Gwent and Nevill Hall Hospitals mirrors that across much of Wales, with just two of the country’s 13 A&E units hitting the target of dealing with 95 per cent of patients inside four hours during those two months.

During April and May 87 per cent of patients attending Royal Gwent A&E were dealt with inside four hours. Those months’ figures for Nevill Hall were 89 per cent and 91 per cent respectively.

Based on total attendances, this means that more than 1,350 patients in each month waited longer than the target four hours.

A number of measures have been introduced at the Royal Gwent unit to try to improve performance, boosting senior staff cover among them, and big improvements in ambulance handover times are helping.

The big problem at the moment is the sheer numbers of people coming in. In April 11,366 people attended both Gwent A&Es, and in May this rose to 11,631.

During the first three months of 2011 almost 1,200 more patients attended than in the same months in 2010, a 5 per cent increase – and the April andMay attendance figures are even higher than for January-March.

More rigorous ways of triaging patients, be it in the unit, where patients may be redirected to their GP, or at the point of a 999 call to the ambulance service, are among the systems being trialled or considered to try to ease the pressure on A&E.