Madam,

I am pleased NHS Wales has continued to deliver professional emergency and scheduled healthcare despite experiencing one of the busiest winters on record.

It has been the second busiest January to March for attendance at emergency departments on record, including very high levels of flu and elderly admissions. The extreme weather in early March also made it extremely difficult for the NHS to operate, with waiting times across Wales affected.

Once again I would like to thank health and social services staff for their outstanding commitment in delivering care during a very challenging period.

We have invested an additional £20m over the winter to help health boards and social care cope with the extra pressure.

The ambulance service again met their target for red calls for the 30th consecutive month since the new model was introduced, despite continuing increasing demand and the busiest March on record.

I am pleased NHS Wales has continued to deliver professional emergency and scheduled health care throughout this extremely busy period. Resilience planning put in place by health boards and local authorities has helped deliver this and we are working with them year-round to improve that planning for the future.

However, we recognise some patients have been waiting longer than is acceptable and we have been clear with health boards about our expectations around performance, and will work with them to evaluate measures taken this winter.

Yours etc,

Vaughan Gething, Welsh Health Secretary.

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