MORE than 3,000 patients spent above 12 hours in Gwent hospital A&E departments last year, up from just 141 in 2007.
And 207 were there for more than 24 hours, compared to none in 2007.
The long waits in Gwent, and in A&E units across Wales, are revealed in Freedom of Information Act figures obtained by the Conservative Party from the Welsh Government.
Wales-wide, 10,228 patients spent more than 12 hours in A&E in 2011 and 710 spent more than 24 hours there, with the Gwent figure the highest ofWales’ health boards.
Shadow health minister Darren Millar called the waits “completely unacceptable”.
“This is the first time we have seen the true scale of waiting times over 12 hours. Lessons must be learned and, where necessary, urgent improvements made.
Helen Birtwhistle, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, the umbrella body for organisations commissioning and providing NHS services, said long waits were “never acceptable” and frontline staff worked hard to avoid them.
She said the figures highlighted the need for shifting services from hospitals into communities for patients to receive preventative treatment earlier, “thus diverting them away from emergency departments” and warned that unnecessary visits to A&E can “clog up” departments.
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