Covid in Wales: Betsi health board delays ops, Cwm Taf pressure warning

Betsi Cadwaladr health board's staff gave out 66,000 vaccine doses last week, double the previous week

Non-urgent operations, procedures and outpatient appointments are being postponed in north Wales so the NHS can focus on giving Covid jabs.

A letter has also been sent to homes in south east Wales warning of the "bleak picture" facing NHS and care services in Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board area.

Betsi Cadwaladr health board has gone further by postponing non-urgent operations from Monday in north Wales.

A total of 47,800 jabs were given on Sunday, a new vaccine record in Wales.

Meanwhile, another 163 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have also been recorded, taking the total to 435 in Wales.

Betsi Cadwaladr health board executive medical director Dr Nick Lyons apologised for postponing services until 4 January.

"Our staff are pulling out all the stops to administer booster jabs to all eligible adults in the next 10 days, ahead of an anticipated peak in Omicron cases in January," he said.

Betsi Cadwaladr health board has released NHS staff to "support the vaccination campaign"

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"To ensure that we can deploy our staff as effectively as possible, we have reluctantly taken the very difficult decision to postpone non-urgent operations, procedures and outpatient appointments.

"We have also asked that all other non-essential services are paused to allow staff to be released to support the vaccination campaign."

Darren Millar, Member of the Senedd (MS) for Clwyd West, said it was a "devastating blow" and "particularly distressing for the more than 40,000 people who have been waiting for longer than 12 months for treatment".

'Severely stretched'

Council leaders and health officials in the Cwm Taf health board area, which covers Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf, said local hospitals were "extremely busy" and ambulance services were "severely stretched".

"This is a bleak picture, but we want to be completely honest with you about the scale of the challenge we are all facing," their letter said.

"The whole health and social care system is under immense pressure from increased demand and the on-going challenges of managing Covid-19 across our services.

"Our staff are working hard to respond to these pressures but we know that many of you will have first-hand experience of the delays and long waits for care that we are currently seeing."