The number of people waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted, discharged or transferred from major Emergency Departments across Wales in March has more than tripled when compared to the same month nine years ago.

With the Royal College of Emergency Medicine cautioning that these worrying figures should serve as a clarion call for whoever forms the next Welsh government to tackle the crisis affecting patients and staff in EDs.

The latest performance data, released by the Welsh government, reveals 10,931 patients waited more than 12 hours last month.

That’s the highest number on record for the month of March.

It means one in seven patients endured this wait just for the decision to be made to either admit, discharge or transfer them.

In March 2017, 3,181 people waited this long.

Meanwhile, almost half of all patients (49.3%) who attended waited at least four hours - this is on par with January this year for being the worst on record for this performance measure.

The figures also revealed it was the worst March on record for eight hour waits – 18,368 patients waited this long.

Dr Rob Perry, RCEM Vice President for Wales said: “The data is deeply concerning – yet more record setting across all areas of performance for four, eight and 12 hour waits.

“These numbers go some way in showcasing the pressure on our emergency departments despite ‘spring’ arriving.

“On a spreadsheet, this data is just that. Figures. Numbers. But in real life, these are people. Patients who are enduring long waits in our corridors, and other inappropriate spaces that were never designed to deliver care in, for a decision around their care to be made.

“And when that decision has been made, our patients are still enduring long waits until an elusive bed on a ward is found for them. That’s because our hospitals are so full, it takes time for a bed to become available for them.

“Last month, RCEM published a report looking into the state of emergency care in this country, which contains a raft of recommendations for whoever forms the next government to act on. That includes making a national commitment to end overcrowding in EDs.

“Our departments and the people working tirelessly in them to try and deliver the best possible care to our patients in these conditions, can only take so much. We can’t go on like this. It needs to be a political priority.”

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine is the single authoritative body for Emergency Medicine in the UK.Emergency Medicine is the medical specialty which provides expert patient care in the NHS Emergency Departments in the UK and other healthcare systems globally.

The Royal College works to ensure high quality care by setting and monitoring standards of care and providing expert guidance and advice on policy to relevant bodies on matters relating to Emergency Medicine.

It’s responsible for setting standards of training and administering; along with supporting Resident Doctors in Training to qualify in the specialty of Emergency Medicine.