Cwm Taf Morgannwg emergency waits: auditors say performance 'continues to be challenging'

The Auditor General for Wales says urgent and emergency care at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board "continues to be challenging", with the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in its emergency departments up 80% since April 2019. Audit Wales published the report on 27 October. It found that new services, including the board's Navigation Hub, are helping to manage demand, but that further action is needed on access, engagement with patients and staff, and clarity over what the plans will cost.

The numbers

The report uses figures up to March 2025. In that month 1,691 people waited more than 12 hours in the board's emergency departments, and the average time spent in them was 5 hours 33 minutes, against an all-Wales average of 5 hours 27 minutes. That is 1 hour 30 minutes longer than in April 2019. Only 20% of patients were handed over from ambulance crews to the emergency department within 15 minutes of arrival, against an all-Wales average of 14% and a national target of 100%. In February 2025, 53% of red (Category A) ambulance calls in the area were answered within eight minutes, against an all-Wales average of 50% and a target of 65%. Red calls in the area rose by 177% between April 2019 and March 2025, compared with 127% across Wales. Of the patients ambulances took to hospital, 98.4% went to a major emergency department, the highest rate in Wales.

What is working

The Navigation Hub, introduced in 2020, has helped avoid hospital admission in 87% of cases, the auditors say. The board also has the highest rate of community pharmacies per GP population in Wales and full participation in the common ailment scheme, and has opened three same day emergency care units. Attendances at its emergency departments fell by 2.6% between April 2019 and March 2025, compared with an all-Wales fall of 8%.

Where it falls short

The auditors say the board's plans do not set out the staffing they need and lack clarity on how new models will be funded in the medium to longer term. The board received an extra £63m between 2022 and 2025 to recover planned and urgent and emergency care, on top of its core funding, plus £5.7m for the Six Goals programme across 2023-24 and 2024-25. The report also says the board has no communications plan for urgent and emergency care, that its website is difficult to navigate, and that ambulance referrals to same day emergency care remain low because of access barriers.

The recommendations

Audit Wales makes nine recommendations. They include setting out current and future workforce needs, identifying funding needs beyond the current annual allocation, making urgent care information more visible on the board's website homepage, auditing same day emergency care data, validating the data used for decisions, and adding the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust to the board's Six Goals Delivery Board. The board's management response is set out in Appendix 3 of the report.

What is not in the report

The figures are as at early 2025 and relate to the audit work carried out during 2024-25. They do not show how the board has performed since. Cover has not sought or published the board's own response beyond what the report records.