University Hospital of Wales branded ‘dangerous’ by damning surgeons’ report

Wales’ biggest hospital, the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, has been branded “dangerous” in a damning report by the Royal College of Surgeons.

The report into the hospital, compiled from information gathered during a visit in April, found that cardiac patients were “regularly dying on waiting lists”, and found shortcuts were being taken in treating children with ear infections.

The BBC said the report had found a “universal consensus” among inspectors that services at the hospital in the Heath area of Cardiff were “dangerous” and of “poor quality”.

More than 2,000 operations were either cancelled, or not scheduled due to a lack of beds during the first three months of 2014.

The most common complaint reported  by surgeons at the hospital was being unable to admit patients for scheduled or elective surgery because of a lack of beds.

Failings found that were deemed to amount to “serious service problems” included major deterioration in the health of cardiac patients because of the length of waiting lists; children being provided with hearing aids when they should have received surgery to fit grommets; “serious complications” for patients forced to wait to receive treatment for kidney stones; “grid-locked” AE and intensive care departments, with patients “often stacked up in corridors and ambulances”.

The report said the amount of surgery had been cut for financial reasons, with the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board under pressure to meet end-of-year targets.

The report comes less than a week after the Royal College of Physicians warned that vital NHS Wales services were at risk of collapse because of severe staff shortages.

Colin Ferguson, director of public affairs for the RCS in Wales told the BBC: “I think our colleagues were telling us that they believed there was significant risk as a consequence of their inability to get patients in to have their operations in a timely way.

“The reasons for that are obviously complex and relate to the whole system of care within the hospital. They relate to emergency medicine, they relate to the admissions coming through the AE department.

“They were very frustrated. As a group they were expressing to us very clearly that they thought the current situation was unsustainable, and something had to be done about it.”

The report has been handed to health minister Mark Drakeford, and a follow-up meeting has been planned for September to assess progress.

A spokesman for the Welsh Government said Mr Drakeford was “very concerned” by the report, which had prompted an action plan to improve the situation.

“This plan has now been produced and is being implemented, and the Minister is being kept informed of progress on a regular basis,” the spokesman added.

Responding to the concerns raised in the report, Mr Cairns told the BBC: “I’m on record already having apologised to our patients.

“It is not a position that we can take any pride in – we need to do better.”

“It is fair to say that this organisation (in the early part of 2013) was struggling, like many others, to cope with the pressures.”