This was the scene outside Bronglais Hospital earlier today (Tuesday) with ambulances left queuing outside the accident and emergency department.

The photograph, sent to the Cambrian News on Tuesday afternoon, shows what appears to be six ambulances parked up outside the accident and emergency department near the hospital's multi-storey car park.

In response to the image, Matthew Willis, Hospital General Manager, said: "Bronglais Hospital recently experienced significant demand for its emergency services and, this morning, received a number of ambulance arrivals in very short succession.

"The A&E department was already full and there was a consequential delay in moving patients from the ambulances.

"All patients on ambulances received care during their wait and the site team worked to ensure patients were discharged so that there was capacity to move patients from the ambulances into the department.

"At the time of this response, there is just one ambulance outside at the current time.

"We would like to apologise to the patients who experienced longer waits than they should have done and would ask that patients consider whether their health care needs could be appropriately met by accessing the services of their GP or local pharmacy before attending A&E.

"We would also like to thank all our staff who work hard to deliver care in very challenging circumstances."

Hywel Dda University Health Board has a pop-up message on its website asking people to only attend accident and emergency departments if you have a life-threatening illness or serious injury.

The website message says: "Our Emergency Departments are under extreme pressure. Please, only attend A&E if you have a life-threatening illness or serious injury, such as: Severe breathing difficulties; severe pain or bleeding; chest pain or a suspected stroke or serious trauma injuries (eg from a car crash).

"To ensure that we can treat patients appropriately, we urge you to choose your healthcare services very carefully, so that we are only seeing people with urgent or emergency care needs in A&E."