PEMBROKESHIRE Community Health Council members Gary Hicks and Councillor John Cole took part in the annual Casualty Watch, an all-Wales CHC initiative, on Monday, January 31st.

Withybush Hospital A&E Department deals with 46,000 attendances a year and this is likely to increase to 50,000.

The visit to the department took place at 4.30pm. The survey includes details of arrival times, length of wait, method of referral and patient reasons for attending, provisional diagnosis, whether waits are in beds, trolleys or chairs, and the reason for delays.

Twelve people were in casualty with the longest wait approximately two-and-a-half hours.

Six were on trolleys, waiting for hospital beds to become available, but there were no ambulance waits. Staff in the department were extremely busy.

Cllr Cole has been conducting these visits for the past six years, but for Gary Hicks it was a first time experience.

Said Cllr Cole: "The longest waiting time observed was a significant improvement from that which was noted in the 2004 Casualty Watch exercise."

Ashley Warlow, Pembrokeshire Community Health Council chief officer, said he was pleased the results for Withybush were better than those reported at many other hospitals, though there was still room for improvement.