7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on emergency services at the Grange Hospital? OQ61363

We've been open about the challenges emergency care services are under. These are not unique to Wales, and the Grange hospital is not an exception. The recent business continuity incident at the hospital reflects the level of pressure the system is under due to demand on services and issues with patient flow.

Diolch. Cabinet Secretary, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board last week, as you've just outlined, at the Grange hospital, announced that it is under enormous pressure, urging people to only attend if they had serious injuries. I went to the accident and emergency department at the Grange two weeks ago, just the weekend before this concerning announcement was made, and I've never seen it so busy—around 20 ambulances outside, and people rammed in the not-fit-for-purpose waiting room and spilling out of the doors, literally. The infrastructure has never been fit for purpose. As you know, it was designed for another purpose originally.

But it's not just the poor infrastructure that's the problem; the systems weren't working either. And I know the enormous pressures, of course, on social care, which has an impact on A&E. I witnessed first-hand the 18-hour waits in A&E in the Grange last September, and it certainly didn't look like anything had been improved since then. In a country such as ours, this situation is not acceptable. Funding needs to be prioritised to do whatever is necessary to improve this urgent situation. So, can the Cabinet Secretary today reassure us that works to improve A&E in the Grange hospital, in infrastructure and management, is something that she is prioritising at the moment, working with the Aneurin Bevan health board, of course, to improve things urgently and drastically for our constituents? It's time this Labour Government stopped wasting money on its pet projects and put the money where it's desperately needed.

Well, I can reassure you, Laura, that I am very fixed on keeping an eye on what's happening in relation to the Grange. That's why, in relation to emergency care, they are in enhanced monitoring, which means that my officials are keeping a very beady eye on them. But also, it's probably worth underlining that we've provided an extra £14 million capital to support the expansion of the emergency department, and I'm expecting those improvements to be completed by the spring of 2025. That is going to double the waiting capacity from 38 to 75 seats. But, as you suggest, it's not just about the infrastructure, it's also about the flow, it's about getting all of those other things right. That's why Aneurin Bevan have also been provided with an additional £6 million from the six goals programme, and the emergency care department are going to receive a further £2.7 million from that. So, there's a huge amount of money going in. We are expecting to see improvements.

As you say, the demand just keeps on coming. The demand we see in emergency care is like nothing we've seen before. And that is really difficult for us to ramp up that quickly, which is why of all the massive, massive pressures that we have in terms of capital—and let's not forget that the Conservative Government only gave us an increase of £1 million in capital for the entire Welsh Government this year—for us to find £14 million capital, for us to spend it on the emergency department in Aneurin Bevan, I hope underlines the seriousness with which we take this issue.