People are attending A&E when they should go to their GP.

Edwina Hart AM has asked for figures to be collected on patients who use A&E when they could instead see their GP.

She has also asked for separate information on how much effect alcohol consumption has on those statistics.

It comes amid concern over the increasing pressure put on casualty departments.

Mr Ahmed Kamal, who works as a consultant at the A&E department in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Llantrisant, said his department was now seeing up to 200 patients every day - and of those, he estimated up to 40% should be seeing their GP instead.

It's wild, aggressive, with a faster pace than what you expect normally and, okay, on occasions it's frightening Dr Ahmed Kamal, on Saturday nights in A&E

"The spectrum's quite variable from anything to do with long-term problems, for example back pain, ear ache, psychological problems," he said.

"There's various reasons for that but one of the most obvious recent reasons is the change of the working patterns of GPs.

"So understandably the patients become frustrated of long waiting times to see their own doctors and they elect to come to the [A&E] departments to be seen and assessed and treated."

He said he would like to see politicians visiting A&E on weekend nights to see the reality staff face dealing with alcohol-related incidents.

"It's a completely different place," he said.

"It's wild, aggressive, with a faster pace than what you expect normally and, okay, on occasions it's frightening."

Tina Donnelly, director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales, said Cardiff and the Vale were seeing 9,000 patients a month, who need not be treated by accident and emergency.

She said nurse-led walk-in centres or GPs based within casualty units could deal with minor injuries and patients with alcohol-related problems.

Improvement plans

A new GP contract, which was introduced in 2004 reduced local doctors' working hours.

But Dr David Bailey, of the British Medical Association in Wales, said he did not believe this had led to an increase in the number of people attending casualty.

"I think it's important to remember that whilst there may be one million people going to casualty every year, there are something like 18 million consultations with GPs in Wales," he said.

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly Government said the Health Minister will announce next week plans to improve emergency care in Wales.

He added the investigation into A&E misuse would include figures of patients under the influence of alcohol in an attempt to cut down on violence towards hospital staff.

"This indicates the assembly government's concern of alcohol abuse and the role it plays in increasing the need for emergency treatment and the associated relationship with abuse of NHS staff," he said.