Health board to transfer intensive care patients due to staffing pressures
Hywel Dda University Health board has confirmed that due to staffing shortages some intensive care patients at Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli will be transferred to Glangwili General Hospital in Carmarthen for treatment.
The health board says it has introduced the urgent temporary change due to ‘significant staffing pressures’ within the Consultant Intensive Care rota in Carmarthenshire and will as a consequence stabilise some of the sickest patients in ICU at Prince Philip Hospital and transfer them to Glangwili.
Andrew Carruthers, Executive Director of Operations at Hywel Dda, said: “I would like to reassure our public, patients and communities that the actions we are taking are aimed at ensuring that we can continue to provide safe care and treatment for some of our sickest patients, and that we are actively working to restore and strengthen our intensive care rotas as quickly as possible, so that we have a resilient service throughout the autumn and winter and beyond.
“Moving forward, we will continue to work with our Recruitment and MEDACs teams to secure suitable sustained backfill for rosters, recognising advertisements are placed for substantive and locum posts, and develop and sustain a team of staff to support vacancies from other locations.”
Patient safety
Mr Mark Henwood, Consultant Surgeon and Deputy Medical Director, added: “Maintaining patient safety across our services is of paramount importance as we continue our journey of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and this is especially true of some of our most acutely unwell patients who require intensive care.
“By bringing in a temporary, short term service change of this nature we can protect our ICU pathways and ensure that those patients who need acute medical intervention from a consultant continue to receive it.”
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