Posted: Tue 20th Jan 2015

Health Board Defend Decrease In Hospital Beds FOI Figures

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jan 20th, 2015

New figures obtained through a Freedom of Information Request reveal that there are fewer beds in North Wales hospitals than there were five years ago.

The figures, released following a series of Freedom of Information requests by Plaid Cymru, show that in October 2009 Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board had a total of 2677 in-patient beds. This compares to October 2014 figures which show there were 2284 in-patient beds, a 15% fall.

However Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board state the reduction in hospital beds reflects ‘the ongoing changes in the way modern health care is delivered’ – with around 60% of operations as day case procedures, where patients do not need an overnight stay in a hospital bed. The reduction has also been put down to modern surgical techniques, better pain relief and health checks on patients taking place before they come into hospital for surgery.

In the five year period Wrexham Maelor Hospital saw a drop of 50 beds coupled with the closure of Flint and Llangollen community hospitals during that period.

At the same time, the number of inpatient cases in North Wales rose from 80,867 to 86,249 – a 6.7% rise. In Wrexham Maelor the rise in the past year has been 15% – from 26331 to 30409.

Plaid Cymru’s North Wales AM Llyr Gruffydd said that such a reduction in beds and nursing staff was contributing to the difficulties the NHS was facing in terms of coping with a growing elderly population and ensuring there were beds for those brought in by ambulance to A&E.

Mr Gruffydd said: “Closing wards such as the Acton ward in the Wrexham Maelor, coupled with the loss of many community hospitals, help explain why we are seeing long queues of ambulances outside our main hospitals and why people waiting so long for operations.”

The FOI also revealed that fewer nurses had been employed in North Wales hospitals over the past five years.

Figures revealed that in October 2009 BCUHB employed 6276 nurses, however in October 2014 there was a total of 5907 nurses employed, a 6% drop.

Mr Gruffydd added: “The health board claims that nurse recruitment is the problem but nurses tell us they’ve applied to work Bank shifts and not heard back from the board. Instead, we’re seeing expensive agency nurses being recruited when we need longer-term planning in terms of workforce recruitment and retention.”

However a spokesperson for BCUHB pointed out the figures in the FOI response regarding fewer nursing staff were ‘misleading’, as the figures included bank staff; a pool of nurses who do not hold a specific post or role in a ward or department, but who are called at short notice to cover gaps on rotas due to regular members of staff being unavailable, perhaps due to illness or annual leave.

The spokesperson added: “These numbers shouldn’t have been included in the FOI response as it is clearly misleading – I am sure the public are interested in the number of nurses actually working on our wards and departments, not the number of reserves we have at home, waiting to be called in if needed.

“In the same way, the number of beds figures doesn’t included any spare beds that we hold in storage, it is the number available on wards that we can admit patients into.

“The number of doctors and nurses employed in north Wales has increased over the last five years, with over 100 extra registered nurses and nearly 100 extra doctors now working in the region.

“In the same period the number of Health Care Support Workers working in the Health Board’s wards and departments has gone up by around 200. This expansion of the clinical workforce has been crucial as the demands on the NHS continue to grow and reflect the Health Board’s determination to continue to invest in its front line services.”

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