Latest NHS Wales data on capacity and performance released today

THE latest NHS Wales data on capacity and performance has been released from today’s press conference by NHS Chief Executive Andrew Goodall.

· Today, all our health boards continue to report their status as green or level one, which means they are able to manage demands on their services.

· We have around 10,000 hospital and community beds routinely available on any day in Wales.

o About 46% of the acute hospital beds (around 3,135) are currently empty. We can respond to pressures and an increase in people with coronavirus being admitted to hospital.

o There are 940 people with confirmed coronavirus in hospital today and a further 395 suspected cases (1335 in total). There are many more people at home with coronavirus who do not need to be in a hospital bed.

· We have increased our critical care capacity further again to 399 beds this week. There is further surge capacity if needed.

o Around 49% of our critical care beds are vacant available.

o One in three are occupied by people with confirmed or suspected coronavirus.

o The greatest pressure on critical care beds remains in the South East of Wales.

· We continue to develop and commission additional beds across Wales to ensure we are prepared as possible for any peak over the forthcoming weeks.

We are seeing a change in the level of NHS activity taking place across our services:

· There are 60% less A&E attendances compared with same period last year;

· Ambulance arrivals at A&E departments are around 20% lower;

· There has been a 35% reduction in emergency admissions to our hospitals;

· GPs are working differently with fewer face-to-face contacts, but we estimate that patient activity has reduced by around 20-25%;

· We continue to see double the level of contacts we normally expect for our 111 service.