Ward Shake-Up Could See 1 in 10 Beds Axed More Day Treatments Mean Fewer Patients Need Hospital Stays

UP to one in 10 Glasgow hospital beds will be axed in a major shake-up of inpatient care.

City NHS bosses believe better and quicker surgery will mean more patients can go home sooner after operations and that hospital stays will continue to get shorter.

They reckon they can cut the number of beds in Greater Glasgow from 3378 now to between 3021 to 3200 in the year 2010.

The cuts will worry those who already believe Glasgow’s hospitals are overstretched and would struggle to cope with a major epidemic or terrorist attack.

Campaigners have long argued Glasgow is short of beds – and needs more spaces, not fewer.

Matthew Dunnigan, a bed capacity expert who has criticised NHS Greater Glasgow in the past, said: “The current evidence is that Glasgow has insufficient bed capacity. I would treat any proposal to solve that problem by cutting bed numbers with grave scepticism.

“I think these proposals will be treated with scepticism by the people working with trolley patients at hospitals like Glasgow Royal Infirmary.”

Margaret Hinds, who chairs Health Service Forum South East, said: “I find plans to cut beds difficult to accept. We have been suffering from a shortage of beds in Glasgow for years.

“That is why you get people lying for hours on trolleys.”

But most top doctors agree massive changes in the way people are treated in hospital will bring a historic low in bed numbers.

Brian Cowan is the medical director of NHS Greater Glasgow and a key player in planning the future of city health services, including a pounds-750million plan to cut the number of general hospitals in the city from five to three.

Dr Cowan said: “To forecast how many day cases might be done by the time our new developments are open, we have compared our performance with other similar hospitals.

“By carrying out in 2010 the same levels of day cases that others are achieving now we predict up to 10,000 more patients could be treated as day patients – and would therefore have no need for a bed.”

Dr Cowan admitted it is difficult to know exactly how many beds Glasgow will need.

He added: “Developing proposals for service redesign and the related requirement for inpatient beds for a decade in advance is a challenging endeavour.”

NHS Greater Glasgow is asking for help – from its own professionals and others – on how to pin down exactly how many beds it will need.

Dr Cowan and his colleagues, however, see the cut in bed numbers as just part of bigger changes in inpatient care.

Today they unveiled plans for an overhaul of the way patients’ needs are met in hospital, including proposals for new state-ofthe- art emergency medical complexes. New intensive rehabilitation rehabilitation services are also expected.

Figures for bed numbers do not include maternity and cancer units.

david. leask@eveningtimes. co. uk TIMESFILE Two Glasgow hospitals, Stobhill and the Victoria Infirmary, to be daycare centres. The Royal Infirmary, Gartnavel and the Southern General remain as full inpatient units. Gartnavel will not have accident & emergency services.

The Western will close.

Most patients don’t want an overnight stay in hospital.

Day surgery reduces the chances of catching a hospital bug.

NHS bosses want to redesignate 200 beds to create new emergency medical complexes for new admissions, hopefully cutting trolley waits.

Fewer patients will stay in one ward. A patient after a hip replacement operation could go from an orthopaedic ward to one of new rehabilitation units.