North Wales MS demands action on ambulance handover delays
Emergency category 1 ambulance response times in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area are facing severe delays, the Senedd has been told, with one North Wales MS citing a freedom of information request showing 2,149 people were declared life extinct while in an ambulance over a two-year period.
Janet Finch-Saunders MS (Welsh Conservative, Bangor Conwy Môn)) raised the issue during the business statement on Tuesday, linking the delays to corridor care in the region’s hospitals.
“Emergency category 1 red ambulance response times in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board are now facing severe and over delays, as a result, of course, of something I raised last week, that being corridor care,” she said.
She described constituents waiting for long periods, sometimes outdoors, before being seen.
“So many examples are coming in through my mailbox of our vulnerable elderly adults lying for hours, sometimes outside. It’s just not acceptable,” she said.
Ms Finch-Saunders set out the figure she had obtained through a freedom of information request.
“I actually submitted a freedom of information that showed that 2,149 people were declared life extinct whilst in an ambulance in the 24 months leading up to December 2025,” she said.
She went on to describe handover problems at the point where ambulances reach hospital, and pressed the Government on the target time for crews to hand patients over to hospital staff.
“Will the Cabinet Minister for health or yourself clarify what actions you are actually doing to reduce the waiting times? How are they working with the ambulance trust to ensure that the 45-minute target is now adhered to, rather than what can be often where the paramedic goes home, leaving a patient in an ambulance with a new member of staff coming on, coming back the next morning seeing that same patient? It’s unacceptable, and we need urgency on this now,” she said.
Responding for the Government, the Trefnydd, Heledd Fychan, did not give figures or a timeline for improvement. She directed Ms Finch-Saunders to raise individual cases with the health minister and pointed to the minister’s stated priorities.
“And I would, of course, always encourage the Member, when there are cases that she is aware of, to continue to engage directly with the Minister for health to ensure that the department can respond and are aware of that,” Ms Fychan said.
She added that there would be further opportunities to put questions to the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care directly.
“You will be aware that the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care has outlined his priorities where there is a determination to tackle this issue, certainly, and there will be further opportunities to raise questions with him directly through questions to him as Minister,” she said.
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