Some patients in hospital too long, Welsh health minister says
- Published
The gap between average hospital stays in Wales and England has widened, research shows
The Welsh health minister has said she is "very focused" on treating people quicker in hospital, after a BBC investigation found treatment times are 60% longer in Wales than England.
The data showed patients staying in Welsh hospitals for an average of seven days, the longest in any UK nation.
Eluned Morgan said: "There are cases where we do need to get people out of our hospitals much quicker".
Officials were looking at the data, from the Nuffield Trust, she said.
The analysis was published last week, after the independent healthcare research charity reviewed how waiting times in Wales compare with other UK countries, for BBC Wales investigates.
The Nuffield Trust found that over the last 10 years the average length of a hospital stay in England has dropped to just over four days, research from the independent healthcare research charity found.
In Wales that average stay is seven days, with research showing the gap between Wales and England's average has widened.
Speaking at a Welsh government news conference, on Tuesday, Ms Morgan stressed that "the way we count our figures is different" and "if you are transferred from one hospital to another then that doesn't count in England where it does in Wales".
"So there are some mitigating measures but I, as health minister, can tell you that I am very focused on this, that we recognise that there are cases where we do need to get people out of our hospitals much quicker," she told journalists.
Ms Morgan described care services in Wales as being "in a very fragile state".
She said ministers were "trying now to see what we can do to go much further in terms of recruiting reablement carers so that we can get people out of hospital quicker, make those assessments in the home and release those hospital beds for, of course, those emergency cases that are currently accumulating at the front door of our hospitals in A&E".
Reablement carers provide intensive temporary care in the home, to help people regain their independence.
Meanwhile, the proportion of acute hospital beds occupied by patients hit record levels in NHS Wales this week, an indicator of pressures within the health service.
The latest snapshot for the last seven days sees the average of acute beds being occupied by patients rising to 93.4%, a new record, according to Digital Health and Care Wales figures.
Across Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, serving the Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf council areas, there were only 19 vacant acute beds on Monday.
For more on this story, watch BBC Wales Investigates on catch-up afterwards on BBC iPlayer