Betsi Cadwaladr health chiefs sorry for Ysbyty Gwynedd 14-hour bed wait
A health board has apologised after accident and emergency department (A&E) patients were kept waiting up to 14 hours for a bed at a hospital.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said patients at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, had endured a long wait over the past 24 hours.
Due to a lack of beds nine patients waited on trolleys for eight hours, while some waited a further six hours.
The board said patients were being kept safe while waiting to be transferred.
In a statement the health board said: "We sincerely apologise to patients who experienced extended delays.
"Our frontline staff are working very hard and professionally in very challenging circumstances.
"Whilst the pressure on the emergency department remains significant the health board is ensuring that patients are kept safe whilst waiting to be transferred."
Conservative assembly health spokesperson Darren Millar said the apology was welcome but "of little comfort to those who have been kept waiting for up to 14 hours".
"This remains an unacceptable blunder that would have hit the elderly and vulnerable the hardest," he said.
"I would now expect the health minister to look very carefully at the pressures blamed by the health board, and measures put in place to make sure this does not happen again."