“Culture of steady and sustained improvement in NHS Wales” – NHS Wales Chief Executive Dr Andrew Goodall

 Every year in the NHS:

• there are 30,000 births
• one million A&E attendances
• three million outpatient appointments
• an estimated 18 million contacts in GP practices, community clinics and other primary care settings

The report describes some of the improvements and innovations in the health service in the last year, as well as highlighting areas for future improvement.  

Innovations detailed in the report include: 

• A unique form of plastic surgery is helping to improve quality of life for lymphoedema patients.  Wales is the only UK nation to offer the procedure, funded through the Welsh Government’s Health Technology fund.  The surgery means patients no longer require compression garments, reducing costs to the NHS.  
  
  
• Over 150 new staff have been recruited and new services created to improve Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services across Wales.  New crisis intervention teams are now operating outside of normal working hours and early intervention in psychosis teams are caring for 15 to 24 year-olds experiencing severe mental illness.  

NHS Wales Chief Executive Dr Andrew Goodall said: 

“We have seen several years of sustained improvement in diabetes outcomes for children and young people.  Cancer survival rates continue to improve despite increasing numbers of people requiring treatment. Waiting times to access diagnostic services continue to fall and we have seen a steady decline in people experiencing delays in their hospital discharge thanks to improved links between hospitals and social care.  

“Our new clinical response model has vastly improved ambulance response times and has attracted interest from across the UK and the world. 

“Passionate and committed NHS staff are leading improvements in healthcare services across Wales, services used by thousands of people every week; the Annual Quality Statement takes a look at just some of these improvements, but also looks at what we need to do next.  

“I want to challenge the NHS to keep on improving; to work to provide care that is truly centred on the individual patient, and to ensure health and care are delivered to the same high standards consistently across Wales.”