- 2,000 procedures cancelled in three months at University Hospital of Wales
- Hospital confirm 15 patients have died while waiting for heart surgery
- Children given hearing aids to save time and money of grommets surgery
- Report also found failures in cleaning and sterilisation of theatre equipment
By Jenny Hope
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The biggest hospital in Wales has been branded 'dangerous' in a damning new report, which says patients are at risk because of increased waiting lists.
The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) warns that people waiting for heart operations at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff are 'dying regularly' and some children are suffering because of delays.
No fit state: 2,000 patients failed to get non-urgent surgery in the first three months of the year alone, because of lack of beds or cancellations at University Hospital of Wales
Its report says:
* Children are being fitted with hearing aids because of a lack of time and resources to insert grommets to treat ear infections
*Patients are suffering complications because of delays in treating kidney stones
* A&E and intensive care units are 'frequently gridlocked' with patients 'often stacked up in corridors and ambulances'.
Bosses at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said the 'unacceptable' situation was now being addressed and were looking at options to increase cardiac surgery capacity.
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The seven-page RCS report says 2,000 patients failed to get non-urgent surgery in the first three months of the year alone, because of lack of beds or cancellations.
'This has resulted in increasing waiting lists such that patients are clearly coming to harm. In cardiac surgery we heard that patients are regularly dying on the waiting list from their cardiac pathology, mostly valvular disease' it says.
The RCS report came following a visit to surgical departments by its Public Affairs Board for Wales (PAB) in April this year.
The report from the Royal College of Surgeons also found failures in the cleaning and sterilisation of theatre equipment
It highlighted a 'universal consensus' among clinicians that some services at the hospital were dangerous and of poor quality.
The perception among doctors, it said, was that operations are being cut to save money and meet financial targets.
Increased waiting lists mean patients are regularly dying from their cardiac pathology before surgery
Some services had been effectively suspended' such as paediatric tonsillectomy and children are now regularly being fitted with hearing aids because there is no ability to do grommet insertion instead.
The RCS report found 'inadequate' facilities for urgent and emergency, failures in the cleaning and sterilization processes and concerns that the A&E department was failing to cope with demand.
Labour MP Ann Clwyd, whose husband died at the hospital, called for the chief executive and the whole board to step down.
She told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: 'I'm horrified because some of my constituents go to this hospital, constituents in the Cynon Valley, and to hear from the RCS through a leaked report that certain departments are dangerous, with patients dying regularly, that the services at the UHW were dangerous and of poor quality, that is horrifying and particularly because we didn't know about it.
"The situation sounds to me very similar to the Mid Staffs situation. This is the Welsh Mid Staffs moment.
Health board chief executive Adam Cairns apologised for performance at the hospital and confirmed that 15 people had died in the 12 months while on the waiting list for heart surgery.
But he rejected calls to resign.
'Our role, I think, is to look the problems that we have in the eye and then be very determined to fix them and I think it would be a dereliction of duty to walk away from these problems. We have to fix them' he told the programme.
The RCS' report comes less than a week after the Royal College of Physicians warned that vital NHS Wales services were at risk of collapse because of severe staff shortages.
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