BRONGLAIS Hospital could need an additional £1.5m to fund additional beds and extra nurses to cope with increased winter pressures, a health board plan has warned.

With Hywel Dda Health Board gearing up for the busy winter period, the board has drawn up county plans to cope with the expected increased demand for services across the winter period.

In previous years the health board has cancelled elective surgery in an attempt to cope with the demand, but the plan for Bronglais for this year includes plans to increase bed numbers and use agency nursing staff if required.

The plan shows that the hospital has almost 40 nursing vacancies, but says that gap could be filled using agency nurses if recruitment efforts are unsuccessful.

Other measures include providing an additional 13 or 14 beds, including community nursing beds, as well as two critical care beds if needed, with steps also including improving the management of beds by appointing two nursing bed managers. The plan identifies issues around bed numbers as one of the main problems during the winter period.

It says: “The health board has developed a bed modelling tool kit in order to profile bed pressures at various occupancy rates. This shows a deficit of approximately 15 beds based upon last year’s information, assuming an 85 per cent occupancy rate."

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online now