AM calls for more hospital beds to relieve the pressures on A&E
MORE hospital beds are needed to ease winter pressures which are leaving ambulances waiting outside emergency departments, an AM has said.
Suzy Davies said that Wales had lost 30% of its hospital beds over the past 20 years and blamed the closure of smaller hospitals like Maesgwyn, which used to be in Bryncethin, Bridgend, for reducing the number of step-down beds available for patients who no longer need an acute bed but are not well enough to go home.
She said: “We saw only last week that ABMU (Abertawe Bro Morgannwg NHS Trust) has one of the worst records in Wales on bed blocking where mainly elderly people are left in acute beds which they don’t need simply because there is nowhere else for them to go.
“This causes delays in A&E where patients who do need acute beds are left on trolleys and also results in cancelled elective operations.
“The knock-on effects can be clearly seen in the long delays patients are having to endure waiting for operations like hip replacements.
“The beds crisis also impacts on ambulance services as vehicles stack up outside hospitals like Princess of Wales waiting to discharge patients into emergency departments which have no room for them.”
An ABMU spokeswoman said: “Like other health boards and NHS trusts, our hospitals are currently very busy.
“We are doing all we can to reduce delays and see more patients including working closely with colleagues in the ambulance service and other partner organisations, temporar- ily opening extra beds and ensuring all available clinicians and nurses are seeing patients.
“In addition, we have a number of schemes to ensure patients who no longer require medical treatment in hospital return home or to another safe place on time. This is better for patients and helps free up beds for other patients who are very ill and urgently need the bed.
“Evidence shows staying in hospital after recovery can be harmful, as hospitals receive other patients with serious in- fections which have a risk of spreading. Plus, elderly patients in particular can also start to lose their mobility and independence.
“Ten days’ bedrest can mean 10 years’ muscle loss, so in some cases patients may get over the illness they were admitted to hospital with, only to find they can no longer walk.
“Unfortunately, the answer to the problem isn’t as simple as opening more permanent hospital beds, if it was hospitals across the UK would have done this.
“The reality is, demands on the NHS have not only increased, but changed.
“The answer lies in investing more in community-based health and social care to prevent people coming into hospital in the first place, and if they are admitted, getting them home on time.
“Families can play a valuable role helping us get people back to their own homes which often boosts the recovery process by being in a familiar environment. Families can also help by working closely with us when patients need a place in a care home, to make sure there are no avoidable delays.
“ABMU has a number of specific schemes in place designed to support and prevent people from being admitted to hospital unnecessarily, and to optimise safe and appropriate patient discharge to minimise delays.”