THE A&E department of Glan Clwyd Hospital had the highest death rate in Wales in 2016-17, newly-published figures reveal.

The data shows 30.4 people per 10,000 died when admitted to the emergency unit at the Bodelwyddan hospital in the year to October 2017, above the Welsh average of 19.4 deaths per 10,000 patients.

The figures reveal the department is recording a higher rate of deaths compared with the rest of the country.

Darren Millar, AM for Clwyd West, said: “It’s simply unacceptable that patients are more likely to die if they go to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd’s emergency department than if they go to other emergency departments across Wales.

“It’s more than two-and-a-half years since the Welsh Government put Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) in special measures and promised people in North Wales that things would get better, but these death rates suggest it’s actually getting worse.

“Glan Clwyd Hospital has always served an older than average population and its emergency department traditionally had lower death rates than elsewhere; demographics do not explain the significant deterioration in recent years.”

Dr Evan Moore, executive medical director at BCUHB said: “Ysbyty Glan Clwyd has a crude death rate which is similar to the rest of Wales.

“However, the death rate in the emergency department is higher than in the rest of Wales.

“The emergency department, sees some 58,000 patients every year, there are a number reasons for the higher death rate: a higher than average number of patients are brought in by the ambulance service and we serve a high elderly coastal population who are disproportionately frail.

“Unfortunately many of the patients who die, arrive very unwell and despite immediate treatment, cannot be successfully resuscitated.”

The crude mortality rate – which reflects the total number of deaths to residents in a specified geographic area – for the 12 months to October 2017 was 1.81 per cent (one in 55 patients), which is on a par with the Welsh average at 1.83 per cent (one in 55).