Mark Drakeford blames drunks for missed A&E target in Wales

The First Minister of Wales has blamed drunks for the Welsh Labour government never once meeting its waiting time target in hospital accident and emergency departments.

Mark Drakeford, who stands down next week, told the BBC "many, many people who wait in hospital to be treated are not sitting there waiting in pain, they're sitting there waiting because they're drunk".

He suggested it would be better if the target didn't include those who had had too much to drink.

"A more sensible system would not count them," he told me.

Having been pressed about his government's failure to meet the A&E target, Mr Drakeford, who is also a former Welsh health minister, volunteered the contribution of drunks to queues at accident and emergency.

Research by BBC News published in January showed that Wales, as well as Northern Ireland, had never met this flagship healthcare target over the last 20 years.

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Labour has been in government in Wales for the past 20 years.

The accident and emergency target is that 95% of patients should spend less than four hours from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge.

Mr Drakeford has been in the Welsh government throughout the last decade, and for much of the last 20 years.

He was a policy adviser from 2002 to 2010. He became health minister in 2013, and first minister in 2018.

Asked directly if not meeting the target amounted to a failure, he replied: "Well on those terms you can say that, but it is a really complex issue".

Mark Drakeford added that "seven out of ten people who turn up at an A&E department in Cardiff will be there because alcohol has played a part in them arriving there on a Friday or a Saturday night."

When asked if a four-hour wait might be helpful to give people time to sober up, he said the intoxicated "cannot sensibly be talked to for hours".

On Saturday, the result of the contest to replace Mr Drakeford as Welsh Labour leader will be announced.

The two candidates for the job are Vaughan Gething and Jeremy Miles, with the winner taking over from Mr Drakeford next Wednesday.