Darren Millar MS questioned the Welsh Labour Government’s response to the critical incident declared by the Welsh Ambulance Service at his first FMQs of the new year, drawing attention to likelihood that long ambulance delays will be leading to unnecessary deaths.

Mr Millar spoke out after meeting with the Head of the Wales Ambulance service who warned him about the impact the delays would be having.

Raising the issue in the Senedd with the First Minister, Welsh Conservative Leader, Darren Millar MS said:

“I am woefully disappointed by the complacency displayed by the First Minister following the Ambulance delays and critical incident declaration. People are dying, complacency is not acceptable.

“340 people who had requested an emergency response did not have ambulances dispatched to them primarily due to handover delays at hospitals. Statistically, 1-in-10 of those people will have suffered preventable harm or death as a result. This is a figure that was given to me by the head of the Wales Ambulance Service yesterday when I visited.

“The situation in our ambulance service is unacceptable for staff and patients, who are effectively facing a critical incident all year round.

“After 26 years of Welsh Labour Governments, the Welsh NHS is broken. We need an urgent increase in hospital bed capacity, better discharge planning, and a credible long term plan to fix our health service and turn this situation around.”