The Health Board says the move — first reported by Swansea Bay News earlier this week — is being considered due to staffing pressures on the hospital’s in‑patient ward. The beds, known as “step‑down” beds, are used by patients who no longer need acute hospital care but are not yet ready to return home, and serve people from across the Health Board area, not just Gorseinon.
The Health Board says the proposal — first reported by Swansea Bay News earlier this week — is in response to “serious concerns around the staffing of the 30‑bed ward and how it could impact on patient safety going forwards.”
In a detailed statement, it said:
“The West Ward at Gorseinon provides 30 ‘step down’ beds that enable patients to bridge the gap between hospital care and home. The beds serve a much wider population than the immediate Gorseinon area – patients from across the entire Swansea area as well as some from the Neath Port Talbot area are cared for there.
Apart from the West Ward, Gorseinon Hospital is also home to a range of other services including outpatient, blood test and community services. These will not be affected by the temporary closure – Gorseinon Hospital will remain an important part of the Swansea Bay University Health Board estate.
High levels of staff sickness and other availability issues have resulted in excessively high usage of agency and temporary staff to fill gaps on shifts, sometimes as much as 50% of the total staffing. This hinders good team working and places additional pressure on substantive staff who often have to supervise and support the agency and temporary workers.
A number of concerns have been raised by staff from a range of professional disciplines at Gorseinon regarding the West Ward and these concerns continue to be raised. While measures have been taken to address the issues raised, we are clear that they have not had the impact needed.
This is not considered sustainable and the clinical advice the Board has received… is that this raises serious, red flag safety concerns that need to be addressed. That’s why plans are currently being put in place to pre‑empt safety related incidents through the transfer of the 30 beds to Singleton on a temporary basis from 1 October.
Temporarily transferring the West Ward to Singleton and consolidating the relevant staff there will allow teams to support one another and enable the Health Board to manage staffing pressures more effectively, reducing our dependency on agency staff.
Transferring the beds will also ensure that staff can access wider nursing, therapy and medical support at Singleton as well as leadership capacity.
Should the temporary transfer of the West Ward beds proceed, the Health Board will seek to use the freed‑up space at Gorseinon for other NHS healthcare purposes.
Longer term, the Health Board will engage with the public on the best way of providing the ‘step down’ service as part of the development of its Clinical Services Plan… Engagement… will include talking with the public… about how we make sure that the Hospital remains a vibrant centre focused on the healthcare of our local population – that is our entire focus.
No other non‑Health Board purposes are being considered for the West Ward at Gorseinon in the short, medium or long term and no requests have been received. For the avoidance of doubt, false rumours circulating online that the West Ward will be repurposed to house asylum seekers are entirely baseless and completely untrue.”
Councillors meet Health Board
Gorseinon councillors Andrew Stevens, Jan Curtice and Nicola Matthews met yesterday with Health Board chair Emma Woollett and senior staff, alongside fellow councillors Kelly Roberts, Adam Davis and Robert Smith, to discuss the hospital’s future.
In a joint statement, they said they had been assured there were no plans to close the hospital, but expressed frustration at only learning of the proposals via social media — something the Health Board apologised for.
“While temporary changes to the in‑patient ward are being proposed, the Health Board is looking at potential expansion of other services,” they said. “We as councillors want Gorseinon Hospital to be used for in‑patient as well as out‑patient services and will continue to make this case forcefully. They envision a strong, robust future for Gorseinon Hospital and recognise its historic and community importance.”
The councillors stressed the decision is not one for the local authority, but pledged to remain “fully committed” to the hospital and to push for it to “go from strength to strength”.
Petition launched
A petition calling for services at Gorseinon Hospital to be protected has so far attracted 876 signatures. The petition, titled Save Services at Gorseinon Hospital, can be found on Change.org.
Decision expected this month
The Health Board says it is putting plans in place for the possible transfer of beds and will make a final decision later this month. In the meantime, all other services at Gorseinon Hospital will continue as normal.
