Statement regarding the in-patient West Ward at Gorseinon Hospital

The Health Board is urgently considering plans to temporarily close the West Ward (inpatient ward) at Gorseinon Hospital and transfer patients to an empty ward at Singleton Hospital. 

While no final decision has been made yet, plans have been put together in response to serious concerns around the staffing of the 30 bed ward and how it could impact on patient safety going forwards.

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.

In relation to the West Ward specifically, 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 at its meeting today (Thursday 11 September) 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. The health board will consider these plans and the rationale behind them later this month as it makes its final decision.

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 that will look at what is provided where across the breadth of the Health Board’s clinical services. 

Engagement around this Clinical Services Plan will include talking with the public across the wider area, including Gorseinon, 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.