Health services in Gloucestershire urgently need more staff and beds

A councillor at Cheltenham Borough Council has warned that Gloucestershire’s health and social care services need more facilities, staff and beds, adding that they need additional government support because their hospitals cannot meet capacity.

 

In a joint statement with the NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust revealed that “over the winter a range of support has been put in place across Gloucestershire, including an additional £2m of funding”.

 

A new service for its out of hours platform/NHS 111 will “increase clinical support and advice to people remaining at home or being directed and booked into local NHS services.”

 

However, the borough’s councillors said there were still insufficient bed numbers in the county’s hospitals and called on the government to provide more support.

 

Speaking at a recent council meeting, Rowena Hay, council leader, said a recent report by the Skills for Care charity claimed there were more than 155,000 vacancies for nurses and a shortage of 100,000 carers across the country.

 

Ms Hay said “This is a national issue, not just in health but social care as well.  So many of our hospitals are stuck with beds because there is such a shortage of care workers.”

 

In the joint statement, the CCG and foundation trust said “joint services are in place to assess, treat and support older people to return home from hospital on the same day, and further investment has been made in additional NHS funded beds, including in the independent sector.”

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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