news story

20th February 2006

Winter Beds Crisis in Local Hospitals - MP Warns of Folly of Plans for Bed Cuts

Local doctors have been told to avoid sending all but the most seriously ill people to hospital because of a beds crisis, according to a memo leaked to Northavon MP Steve Webb. The MP said the crisis showed the "folly" of plans to cut hundreds of beds from acute hospitals in North Bristol and South Gloucestershire. On Thursday (February 16th) an e-mail issued by the Director of Operations at North Bristol NHS Trust said:

"We are asking Primary Care to refer only clinically urgent patients from now until Monday, as we simply have no capacity for anything else. We will review the position on Monday and update PCTs then".

The e-mail said that North Bristol Trust has been on "red alert" all week, and that emergency admissions were "significantly exceeding bed availability". It went on to admit that the Trust had "very limited critical care capacity" and that as a result "all but clinically urgent elective activity has been cancelled".

The memo highlighted the resultant risk of "compromising 6-month waiting target for the end of February". Part of the problem was due to having seven wards closed due to the Norovirus and a further three being "under observation".

Commenting, Steve Webb said:

"Just as in previous winters, local hospitals are full to bursting and having to turn patients away. Yet there are still plans to cut hundreds of beds when Frenchay and Southmead are replaced with a single "super-hospital".

"If we can't cope now with the number of beds we have got, what chance is there in the future when the population will have risen and the number of beds fallen? It is vital that lessons are learned from this repeated crisis and that plans for bed cuts are ditched".