THE situation where Gwent hospital patients are shipped between accident and emergency departments to ease congestion - as happened at Nevill Hall, Abergavenny, last week - is likely to worsen, a clinician has warned.

Rod Jones, joint chief of staff at Gwent Healthcare Trust, also accused Local Health Boards of failing to invest in trust ideas for secondary care, a claim refuted by Torfaen LHB boss John Skinner.

Some patients were transferred from Nevill Hall to the Royal Gwent in Newport last Wednesday after the former had an influx of A and E cases. Both hospitals have struggled to cope with surges in emergency medical admissions on several occasions this year.

The Royal Gwent deals with more such admissions than any other Welsh hospital, while Nevill Hall is the second busiest, handling more even than Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales, and Morriston in Swansea.

Mr Jones, an associate member of Torfaen LHB, said that last Wednesday, patients had to wait on trolleys in Nevill Hall's radiology department, and he hinted the situation will not be improved because of insufficient investment in secondary care.

"I'm afraid from the trust point of view that we have got very little from the SaFF (Strategic and Financial Framework - the annual NHS spending agreement negotiated by LHBs and trusts), and I don't think the LHB can entirely wash its hands of the affair," said Mr Jones.

"There is a failure of investment in new ideas the trust has, and I think the situation will get worse over the next few months."

However, Mr Skinner said the healthcare situation in Wales has improved, but only with the help of extra, one-off funding.

"The trick now is to keep improving within funding limits. "We must strike a balance between appropriate investment in secondary care, and much more fundamental investment in primary and intermediate care," he said.

Through LHBs' Wanless Local Action Plans, a future focus of NHS investment will be on primary and intermediate care, to prevent hospital admission where appropriate and ensure people are discharged as quickly as possible.

"That is really the agenda we must develop. "The sooner we do that, the sooner we will see fewer situations like Nevill Hall grinding to a halt," said Mr Skinner.