One in eight Gwent hospital beds may be closed

An Aneurin Bevan Health Board plan proposes a reduction of 241 acute and community hospital beds up to and including 2018/19, a move which will reduce the total number of beds to fewer than 1,600.

But health bosses are also considering a more gradual reduction of community beds, up to 2020/21, to make sure that the system is able to cope with demand following the opening of the SCCC.

Bed numbers in Gwent hospitals have already fallen by one sixth since 2006 as old community hospitals have been closed and new ones – Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr at Ystrad Mynach, and Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan at Ebbw Vale – opened in their place.

In tandem with hospital modernisation, there has also been a move to bolster support for vulnerable, particularly elderly, patients in the community, through the likes of the ongoing Gwent Frailty Programme.

The bed reduction programme is described in the health board’s annual plan as “challenging”, and key to its success will be the Frailty Programme’s ability to prevent hospital admissions and speed up discharges by providing enhanced care in patients’ homes.

Bed closures took place at St Woolos Hospital last year based on the Frailty Programme saving thousands of hospital bed days.

Another factor that will determine whether bed reduction plans are successful is a cut in patients’ average length of stay in hospital. Lengths of stay must be reduced before bed capacity can be cut, and the health board believes that there are big gains to be made, particularly in areas such as care of the elderly, gastroenterology, and respiratory conditions.

There is also an aim of more than halving average lengths of stay in community hospital beds, from 31 days to 15.3 days by 2018.

The aforementioned strengthening of care and treatment in the community, in which primary care also has a key role to play, will be vital in helping minimise patients’ stays in hospital.