Extra 350 hospital beds to cope with COVID-19

Hospitals across Dorset have added to their capacity this year.

Author: Trevor Beivns, Local Democracy ReporterPublished 25th Apr 2021

COVID measures across Dorset saw an extra 350 hospital beds developed to cope with the emergency.

These includes beds in hospitals both in rural Dorset and in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole as well as in community and care homes, together with some extra support for domiciliary care.

Emma Wilson, head of urgent and emergency care at the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, told a Dorset Council health scrutiny meeting that the unprecedented year saw a successful consistent response to the situation as it emerged.

She said that military staff had been called on to support local NHS staff at times when many nursing and other staff were themselves unwell.

The meeting heard that work was currently underway to ensure that people who might need to go to hospital, or attend other health services, were referred to the right place in the first instance – saving unnecessary attendances.

Many medical assessments have been carried out virtually since September last year to minimise the risk of infection. There have also been changes to discharge from hospital procedures to ensure people going home get the right care and support if they now have additional needs after their admission to hospital.

The use of virtual assessments is reported to have been successful and is likely to be continue for some services, together with the development of other digital services into the future.

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