Petition calls for more community beds

Health and social care should be integrated to ease the pressure on the NHS.

 

That's the view of Mabon ap Gwynfor, long time health campaigner and Parliamentary Candidate for Plaid Cymru in Clwyd South.

 

Mr ap Gwynfor said that there were beds available in care homes which could be commissioned by the Health Board for step-down care.

 

He sited Cysgod-y-Gaer in Corwen as an example which had five beds which could be used as community beds for patients from the Dee Valley following the closure of Llangollen Hospital and the loss of 18 beds there.

 

Mr ap Gwynfor made the call as he launched a petition calling on the Health Board and Welsh Government to open more community beds in North Wales.

 

He said: “This is a very difficult winter for the Health Board, with huge ambulance queues; A&E full to bursting with patients waiting many long hours; and a shortage of GPs.

 

"Clinicians are telling us that these difficulties are in no small part down to the closure of community hospitals and the loss of hospital beds.

 

"We know that North Wales has lost some 400 hospital beds in the last five years, with 53 of those following the closure of Llangollen, Flint, Prestatyn, and Ffestiniog hospitals.

 

“The health Board and Labour Government are intent on centralising services, with Lesley Griffiths memorably comparing Wales with Birmingham.

 

"But North Wales is rural, sparse, and has different needs. We need community beds across the region.

 

"Chirk Hospital is providing a brilliant service but its full; and staff at the Maelor are doing great work in very difficult circumstances. That’s why I’ve launched this petition calling for more community hospital beds, and four hundred people have already signed it.

 

“Cysgod y Gaer Care Home in Corwen has beds which the Health Board could commission. This would help ease the pressure on District General Hospitals, and would also help Denbighshire as they are looking for a long term solution to their Care Homes.

 

"It would also start the process of what Plaid Cymru would like to see which is an integrated Health and Social Care provision.”

 

* The petition can be found at http://mabonapgwynfor.com/beds/