Wales NHS: Unprecedented health pressure, says top doctor

Hospitals in Wales are in an unprecedented situation as they tackle flu, according to the country's top doctor.

Dr Sir Frank Atherton said all health boards were "at the highest level of escalation" and described the system as the busiest he had seen.

The pressures meant staff felt "wiped out" and "destroyed" at the end of their shifts with many left in tears, according to one consultant.

It comes as flu cases are rising.

For the week from 19-25 December, there were 1,877 cases recorded by Public Health Wales, with 369 of these leading to hospital treatment.

The week before, the figure was 236 leading to hospital admissions, and it was 53 a month before.

"Traditionally people have called 111, but even that is under significant pressure," Dr Atherton said.

"We have had double the number of calls in a week compared to the same time last year."

He said a 111 website had been set up to ease pressure, where people could get advice.

"The health and care system is under such pressure, it's the busiest I've ever seen it," he added.

"The new year is always the busiest time, but we are going into it with all of our health boards at the highest level of escalation.

"And that is an unprecedented situation, so we are encouraging people to find other ways to manage more minor conditions."

Health boards have asked people not to make hospital visits if they have flu-like symptoms, to protect patients.

Figures showed there were 527 patients with flu in hospital beds in Wales in the week leading up to Christmas, a 58% jump on the week before.

Of these patients, 29 were in critical care.

Nearly half of patients in hospital with flu were over 80, while nearly three-quarters of patients had caught flu while in hospital.

Of the 369 admissions with flu in the latest week, more than half were over 60 and nearly a quarter were children.

Dr Atherton said flu was on the "rise in all four nations" of the UK.

"People who are frail and elderly will be badly affected and will need hospital services and that's what we are seeing here and that's added to the pressures that's coming from everything else," he said

"It's a bad season. It's on the rise because we haven't seen much flu and we haven't seen any of the respiratory diseases for the past few years because of the measures around coronavirus such as lockdowns and masks that led to far less circulation, but they're bouncing back and that's what is happening this year."

He urged those eligible or who have a respiratory disease to get a flu jab and others not to "go mixing with your granny if you have a cold or anyone particularly vulnerable".

Masks are no longer compulsory in hospital, but Dr Atherton said they were still advised.

An A&E consultant at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, said many of his colleagues felt "wiped out" and "destroyed" at the end of their shifts, due to current pressures.

Andy MacNab said his department was currently overcrowded and "it was hard to deliver the quality of care they would like" to patients, with many staff "in tears" during and after their shifts.

"Coming into work knowing you are going to have a really bad day even before you get there is really hard," he said.

Mr MacNab said Christmas Day had been particularly busy this year and staff had "struggled ever since" with keeping waiting times down.

He said some people had been waiting for 18 hours to be seen, adding: "At the moment I've got 60 people waiting for beds in the emergency department and we have got 27 trolleys in total, so that means we have got people doubled up, it means we have got people stuck in ambulances outside, and most crucially we have got very little space to see new arrivals, so we have to prioritise people who are really, really sick."

The Wales Ambulance Service warned people to act responsibly to avoid adding extra pressure.

Mark Harris, assistant director of operations, said Christmas was "very, very busy," with a 60% increase in calls to life-threatening incidents and double the number to the 111 service from last year.

He told BBC Radio Wales Drive: "New Year's Eve is always busy. We expecting it to be similarly busy if not busier, so we're just asking people to help us by taking a few actions just to keep themselves and other safe over the next few days".

Mr Harris urged people to drink moderately, and make sure they ate before they start mixing alcohol and soft drinks.

He also asked revellers to avoid using fireworks, arrange transport home in advance, never drink-drive or drug-drive, and ensure they were stocked up on prescription medications.

Mr Harris further urged people to ensure they had a fully stocked first aid kit at home to try to avoid calling on the health service and take care in the forecast heavy rain.

"Things are very pressured right across the health service - a lot of planning goes into every sort of peak even and New Year's Eve is no exception," he said.

"So we'll be putting on more specialist resources over the night and we'll be setting a specific command structure to manage our response to the incidents and the demand comes in.

"There may be times where demand is greater than our capacity to respond and at those times some people may be advised that we don't have and ambulance that can attend their call or they'll be asked to wait."