CALLS are being made for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to make use of its rainbow hospitals to help deal with the backlog of patients waiting for treatment across North Wales.

Plaid Cymru Senedd candidate for Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Chair of the North Wales Health Alliance, Cllr Mabon ap Gwynfor has called on BCUHB to make use of the so-far unfilled hospitals in Bangor, Llandudno and Deeside.

Newly published figures obtained from the Community Health Council reveal the number of BCUHB patients waiting more than four weeks for treatment has quadrupled within the past year. As of July 31 2020, 30,167 were waiting over 36 weeks for treatment, compared to 8,900 in 2019.

Cllr ap Gwynfor said: "It is understandable that waiting lists have increased due to the pandemic. Resources have quite reasonably been targeted at dealing with this unprecedented public health crisis, but this cannot go on forever.

"Covid-19 is not going to go away anytime soon. Our current health system is not designed to run two parallel services. As things stand, we cannot run a conventional health service alongside a reactive service dealing with the pressures of a viral pandemic.

"We therefore need to develop a short-term work-around solution to enable other key health services to function as normal as possible to meet the continuing needs of patients.

"We have temporary field hospitals in certain places, which have been largely unused. The Health Board, in conjunction with other authorities, should now look at utilising these standby sites to minimise the risk of the infection being acquired at our general hospitals."

Liz Saville Roberts MP added: "Those whose treatment has been postponed as a consequence of the Coronavirus pandemic need to be reassured that everything is now being done to expedite their care.

"It is incumbent on both the local health board and Welsh government to work with others and consider every possible solution".

In response to the calls being made, Dr Kate Clark, Secondary Care Medical Director at BCUHB, said: “Although COVID-19 has caused significant disruption to our services we have continued to prioritise those patients across North Wales who are in need of the most urgent care, such as those who need cancer surgery.

“We are now beginning to slowly re-start some of our routine services that have been postponed during the pandemic.

“We have prioritised waiting lists so that we can offer patients access to treatments in order of clinical priority.

“It is important that we bring back our services where we can, but only where that can be done safely – the virus is still circulating and our priority is to keep our patients and staff as safe as possible.

“We are currently using additional capacity in the Spire, Wrexham and are exploring options for diagnostic and treatment centres.

“Our three Rainbow Hospitals are currently supporting the Test, Trace and Protect programme and remain available and ready to start accepting patients when needed. We remain grateful for the support we’ve received from our partners at Bangor University, Flintshire County Council and Conwy County Borough Council in setting them up.”