NHS Wales: Thousands of hours missing from A&E figures

The true picture of A&E waiting times in Wales has been seriously under-reported for a decade, the BBC can reveal.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has established thousands of hours are missed from monthly figures.

Senior A&E doctors have been raising the issue for months.

The Welsh government said it would ask health boards for assurances they were following the guidance "to ensure the data is absolutely transparent".

The RCEM said it could not measure "how bad" things were because thousands of patients subject to so-called "breach exemptions" were not included in the overall A&E waiting times.

The Welsh government initially disputed the RCEM's claim, but after seeing detailed figures - which were obtained through freedom of information (FOI) requests to health boards - it changed its position.

Wales' health minister has repeatedly claimed A&E waiting times in Wales have "bettered English performance".

But once the missing data is taken into account, it suggests the performance in Wales is worse.

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Source: BBC News, 16 October 2023