Morriston Hospital: My eye-opening day with staff and patients

Although I’ve visited many A&Es over the years – the scenes we witnessed at Morriston were some of the most striking I’ve ever encountered.

Staff worry a lot about having to treat patients in open spaces – it’s not dignified and comes with many risks.

But when so many ambulances with patients are stuck outside, unable to respond to emergencies, you can see why they end up using every inch of capacity.

We clearly saw a system struggling to cope with the huge and growing health demands of an aging, but also relatively sick and poor population.

On one level it’s a simple equation – A&E becomes overcrowded when there are more people come into the hospital than leave.

It’s no surprise that efforts are focused on preventing, where possible, patients from coming in or getting them out of hospital more quickly afterwards.

But both little things (the patient without keys) and big things (an infection outbreak at a nearby elderly care hospital) can throw spanners in the works.

There’s also an appeal to families to help get loved ones home if they can – even if it’s inconvenient – as only a handful of extra discharges on any day can prevent a difficult day from becoming a horrendous one.

Don’t forget either – the pressures on the NHS are made worse by deep-seated challenges in social care.

One A&E consultant told me, given how many patients were flowing in, it felt like the walls of her department were made of elastic.

Some will wonder how much further that elastic can be stretched before it snaps.