PEOPLE in Gwent should continue to avoid seeking treatment at hospital emergency departments unless absolutely necessary, the health board is advising, amid ongoing high demand that will result in longer waits for all but the sickest patients.

Those with minor illnesses and injuries were last week advised to stay away from the area’s emergency departments and to seek help through other NHS services, as hospitals struggled to cope following an extremely busy New Year weekend, and amid much higher levels of medical and surgical emergencies.

While the situation is not as intense this week, demand is still very high, and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is stressing that its advice still stands.

“Our hospitals remain under a great deal of pressure and we have opened extra capacity across the health board, in accordance with our winter plans, to help manage the recent increase in demand for services,” said a spokesman.

“Our advice to local people remains the same – if you attend one of our emergency departments (A&E) with an illness or injury which would be better treated elsewhere, you are likely to face longer waits because our staff need to prioritise the care of very sick patients.”

The Royal Gwent and Nevill Hall Hospitals remain very busy, but the health board has acknowledged that the £3.4m extension to the emergency department at the Royal Gwent – which also involves a new layout and a bigger minor injuries unit – is playing a key role as winter pressures kick in.

“Our new minor injuries unit at the Royal Gwent Hospital has helped us to manage the volume of patients in state-of-the-art facilities,” said the spokesman.

Attendances and admissions at both hospitals’ emergency departments were up slightly last week, compared with the same week in 2016. There were 1,538 and 804 attendances at the Royal Gwent and Nevill Hall respectively last week, compared to 1,462 and 781 in the first week of January last year.

The number of patients arriving by emergency ambulance last week was down at the Royal Gwent (400, compared to 432 last year), but up slightly at Nevill Hall (261, compared to 242).

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And while discharges remained almost the same at Nevill Hall, they were up 13 per cent (to 489) last week at the Royal Gwent, compared to early January last year. This may in part be a result of the health board’s investment in more discharge co-ordinators, through its winter plan.

Alternatives to emergency department attendance are NHS Direct Wales for advice(0845 46 47), your local pharmacist, the GP Out of Hours service (01633 744285), or minor injury units at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, Ystrad Mynach, or Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan, Ebbw Vale, where the health board says waiting times will be much shorter for the treatment of minor injuries.

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