North Wales health board vows to reduce use of corridor care in hospitals
The health board has vowed to reduced the use of corridor care in hospitals.
At a meeting at Conwy County Council’s Coed Pella HQ on Thursday, leader Cllr Julie Fallon slammed the NHS before declaring a “health emergency”.
Cllr Fallon said “enough is enough” and claimed North Wales patients were being placed on the wards of hospital corridors, extending the problem of “corridor care” from A&E departments.
The leader said she was annoyed the health board’s chief executive, Carol Shillabeer, and the Welsh Government Health Minister, Jeremy Miles, failed to respond to a letter sent on behalf of all six authorities, raising concerns about the standard of healthcare in North Wales.
The council then unanimously voted through a notice of motion, calling for community hospital beds to be reopened, an end to corridor care in emergency departments, an immediate halt to premature patient discharges, and the reinstatement of the stalled Conwy West Health Centre project and its funding.
Tehmeena Ajmal, the health board’s chief operating officer, said: “We recognise the serious pressures facing urgent and emergency care in North Wales, and as a board, we are taking coordinated action across the health and social care system, together with our local authority partners, to deliver the required improvements.
“Reducing the use of corridor care and improving patient flow and discharge from hospital is a collective priority and hence this is the Health Board’s top operational goal.
“The leaders of the six local authorities in North Wales have written to the Health Board outlining their concerns that a new policy may have been introduced which facilitates the routine use of corridor care on hospital wards across North Wales. We have responded to this letter directly providing reassurance that no such policy has been introduced.”
She added: “The Health Board, in line with other NHS organisations across the UK, has introduced a standard operating procedure (SOP) for transferring patients to hospital wards in exceptional and extreme circumstances only.
“This applies to a maximum of two patients per ward, only where a risk assessment has deemed it safe to do so, and also where overcrowding within the Emergency Department (ED) poses a significant and immediate risk to patient safety. To date, it has not been necessary to enact this SOP.”
“The safety, dignity, and wellbeing of our patients, and the support of our staff, remain our highest priority as we navigate this very challenging winter period.”
A Welsh Government spokesman also responded to the criticism and said the Health Board remained at the highest level of special measures.
“The NHS waiting list has fallen, and the longest waits are coming down. We have set clear expectations for all health boards to reduce emergency department long stays and complete ambulance handovers within 45 minutes.
“We have also invested more than £200m this year to help manage more people in the community and avoid hospital admissions.
“While the proportion of patients discharged or admitted within four hours fell in December, ambulance patient handover delays over one hour fell by 43% compared to the same month in 2024, and the average time from arrival to triage was 16 minutes – the joint best since February 2021.”
He added: “Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board remains at the highest escalation level, with further measures in place to drive improvement, to ensure people receive the care they deserve.”
By Richard Evans – BBC Local Democracy Reporter
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