Full hospitals turn away patients

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Ambulances have been queuing outside two major hospital forced to close to all but critically-ill patients because of a bed crisis.

A Gwent NHS trust spokesman said non-critical patients have been moved because the Royal Gwent in Newport and Nevill Hall, Abergavenny, were full.

The Wales Ambulance Service also confirmed that up to 10 ambulances had been waiting at the Royal Gwent.

Patients are being moved to Caerphilly Miners and St Woolos hospitals.

Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust confirmed on Monday that ambulances have been parked outside the Royal Gwent Hospital “all day”.

“We’ve had nine to 10 ambulances outside the Royal Gwent during the day,” said spokeswoman Alison Watkins. “We cannot divert them to any other hospital because they were all really busy.

“It’s a big problem for us, we have had ambulance liaison officers in the hospital. But if there are no beds for them we cannot leave them (patients) on the hospital corridor.”

There were reports of patients suffering from fractures and with diabetes being treated on ambulances by paramedics in Newport, with the hospital unable to admit them.

The Royal Gwent Hospital says it is trying to free beds by moving existing patients who are well enough to other hospitals including nearby St Woolas hospital.

A spokesman for the NHS trust said: “We’ve had to divert non-critical patients to Caerphilly District Miners’ Hospital as both the Royal Gwent Hospital and Nevill Hall Hospital have been full.

He added that accident and emergency units in the Royal Gwent and at Nevill Hall have been “very busy since early this morning and the situation has not really eased throughout the day. We are continually reviewing the situation”.

Concerns were raised last month about emergency patients being forced to wait for hours on trolleys at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

An e-mail from a senior nurse to politicians wrote of patients being treated like “vegetables”.

Hospital chiefs admitted there were problems with capacity and expressed sympathy for staff and patients. 

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