More than a third of NHS hospital beds in Powys have been lost in the last five years, according to a Mid Wales Assembly candidate.
Nerys Evans, who will contest a Mid and West Wales regional seat in the May Assembly elections, said this was shocking. A Mid Wales doctor also said all community hospital beds in north Powys were full and general hospitals were becoming overloaded.
But Powys Local Health Board, which runs hospitals in the county, said the beds lost were not needed and keeping them would have been a waste of money.
Ms Evans said the average number of beds in Powys dropped by 33 to 327 in the last year. Since 2000, 166 beds had been lost, totalling more than a third of the beds in the county that year.
“These figures are truly shocking,” she said.
“The percentage of beds lost in Powys is more than three times as much as any other trust in Wales, and I cannot see how the quality of service for the people of Powys can be maintained if we continue to cut the number of beds in our hospitals.”
An LHB spokesman said: “Not all beds are used within our hospitals. That is a waste of resources and is inefficient. The purpose of ‘Doing More, Doing Better’ is to reconfigure services to ensure we provide the right services and treatments to meet the changing needs and demands of the 130,000 people who live in Powys.”
Campaigners working to save hospitals at Llanidloes, Builth Wells, Knighton and Bronllys repeated a claim there would be a bed crisis if community hospitals were closed. They said patients would be at risk because the winter brings a greater risk of infection, leading to more illness and greater demand for inpatient beds.
Dr Andy Raynsford, of the Llanidloes GP practice, said: “The health board should be considering developing existing units, rather than closing them. Community hospital beds across north Powys are full and, although individual hospitals are making their best attempts to discharge patients into the community, their medical conditions mean it can’t be done at the drop of a hat.
“This is having a backwards effect on district general hospitals, which are becoming overloaded again and Powys patients are having to wait for beds.”
By Mike Sivier
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