Health bosses plea for families to help get well patients home as NHS under huge pressure
In Swansea Bay alone nearly 280 beds are being taken up by people well enough to go home
Health chiefs say nearly 280 beds in Swansea Bay hospitals are being used by people who are medically well enough to go home.
They say that’s the equivalent of 10 wards – or a hospital the size of Singleton – currently unavailable to waiting sick patients.
Families in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot are being urged to help free up beds by supporting relatives to go home.
Swansea Bay UHB Clinical Chair for Medicine, Dr Rhodri Edwards said: “We are asking families to get together and work out if they are in a position to help their relative to go home earlier,”
“It would be really helpful if they could find ways to provide some temporary support for a short period, just while the care or re-ablement packages are being organised.
“This will not only be a great help to the NHS by helping us free up more beds for sick patients who are waiting for them, but it will substantially benefit their relative.
“Hospital really isn’t the best place for someone who no longer needs acute care.
“There is a real risk to patients staying on in an acute hospital bed that they will catch an infection from sick patients.
“Or they can become deconditioned - begin to lose strength and ability – by not being up and about enough.
“Prolonged hospital stays often lead to loss of muscle mass and other side effects like constipation and falls, so the sooner a patient is home the better.”