PRESS RELEASE : Welsh Conservative comment on The Grange Report [November 2022]

Healthcare Inspectorate Wales have published a report on The Grange Hospital in Cwmbran, detailing how it’s A&E department is putting patients at risk due to excessive waiting times, uncomfortable conditions and significant overcrowding.

Following the RCN’s decision to strike across six health boards, The Grange will be the only major hospital in Wales staffed by nurses on days when they will picketing elsewhere in Wales.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said:

“Since opening two years ago, The Grange has been fraught with problems and this report, sadly, further confirms that people across South-East Wales are being let down by the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay.

“Some of the findings of this report make me extremely concerned for patient and staff safety, and it is extremely frustrating to find problems with the facilities when we remember it is the newest hospital in Wales.

“With the local health board being the only one that won’t have a nurses strike this winter, I am worried that the hospital could become overwhelmed while issues highlighted in this report are unresolved.

“Wales has the longest treatment waiting times, worst A&E waits, and slowest ambulance response times in Britain, so the last thing we want to read are reports like this – which why Labour ministers should listen to our proposals for surgical hubs and winter war rooms.”

Staff told inspectors they could not always deliver the standard of care they wanted to, due to increasing pressures and demand on the department.

Inspectors said some patients had been waiting on uncomfortable chairs and in the back of ambulances for more than 15 hours and described the waiting area as “very small, cramped and unfit for purpose”.

The inspection also exposed out-of-date medicines being found, resuscitation equipment not being checked daily, and a risk of cross-contamination in an area known as the ‘Covid corridor’. They also found a lack of security around substances which could be harmful to patients.

The news comes shortly after an inspection of Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales found patients sitting on bins in waiting areas.