Bed crisis worse than at any time during pandemic
THE Welsh NHS is currently dealing with a bed shortage crisis more severe than at any other point in the pandemic, with Hywel Dda among the health boards closely running out of vital invasive ventilated beds.
Latest figures from the Welsh Government show that out of the 9,421 beds available in general and acute settings on November 11, just 925 (9.8%) of them were vacant (ie, not occupied by a patient). To put this into context, at the height of the first wave of Covid infections there were 3,122 (50%) vacant beds out of 6,259 on April 11, 2020, and during the second wave there were 1,468 (16%) vacant beds out of 9,281 on January 11, 2021.
It’s a similar story for invasive ventilated beds, which are typically given to the most seriously unwell patients in intensive care. On November 11 there were just 36 vacant beds of this type in the entire Welsh NHS, which is far lower than the 192 vacant on April 11, 2020, but on a similar level to January 11, 2021 (37). In some health boards, including Hywel Dda, which has only five vacant beds, intensive care staff are perilously close to running out of invasive ventilated beds ahead of the notoriously busy winter period.
Evidence shows that hospitals work most safely and effectively at bed occupancy levels no higher than 85%. However, figures show that all of Wales’s health boards have a higher rate, including Hywel Dda with 94.3%
Dr Suresh Pillai, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), said these high bed occupancy rates across Wales’s hospitals were “unsafe for patients and highly stressful for staff”.
“If there is a surge in attendances, which is highly likely as we descend into the colder months, health boards in Wales may struggle to cope. To reach safe occupancy levels in Wales (85% occupancy) there needs to be an expansion of 550 staffed beds,” he said.
“Given current workforce shortages and the need for safe infection prevention and control measures, achieving this in the short term may be a challenge. But with patient safety at imminent risk, the Welsh Government must ensure that health boards have the ability to safely expand capacity now.
“The urgent and emergency care system in Wales faces a crisis, and creating surge capacity is crucial to reducing ambulance handover delays and dangerous crowding that leads to avoidable harm.”
Experts warn that the dual problem of high Covid infection rates and the resumption of routine and elective NHS care in an attempt to clear the record-breaking backlog are leading to a rise in bed occupancy levels.
Dr Olwen Williams, vice-president for Wales at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), said the main issue was around the NHS’s ability to staff more beds.
“It’s simple really: workforce, workforce, workforce,” she said. “There aren’t enough doctors and nurses in the Welsh NHS, and those that are left are exhausted and demoralised. Morale is low. I don’t know how we’re going to get through the winter, to be honest.”
This comes as a high number of Covid-19 cases have been identified in the Amman Valley and St Clears areas, and people are being urged to take extra care. The rate of infection in the Amman Valley area is 1,559.53 per 100,000 people and 1,578.46 per 100,000 in the St Clears area as of Monday
Most cases in the Amman Valley have been linked to known social gatherings, and around 30 cases have been linked to just one social venue.
If you are experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms book a test at gov.wales/apply-coronavirus-test or call 119 (between 7am and 11pm).