Gloucestershire: Health services urgently need more staff and beds

Gloucestershire's health and social care services need more staff, beds and facilities, a councillor has claimed.

Cheltenham Borough Council wants more government support because the county's hospitals cannot meet capacity.

Councillor Flo Clucas said there were currently 200 people occupying hospital beds in Gloucestershire who should be elsewhere.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it works to provide its community the best care.

In a joint statement with the NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), it revealed that "over the winter a range of support has been put in place across Gloucestershire, including an additional £2m of funding".

A new service for its NHS 111/Out of Hours platform will "increase clinical support and advice to people remaining at home or being directed and booked into local NHS services".

But the borough's councillors said there were still not enough beds in the county's hospitals, which includes Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General.

They called on the government to provide more support, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Speaking at Monday's council meeting, council leader Rowena Hay said a recent report by charity Skills for Care claimed that there are more than 155,000 vacancies for nurses and a shortage of 100,000 carers across the country.

The Lib Dem councillor said: "This is a national issue, not just in health but social care as well.

"So many of our hospitals are stuck with beds because there is such a shortage of care workers."

Ms Clucas called for "more beds, more people and better facilities", adding: "If we don't get them, the situation we have now, I fear, will worsen."

In its statement, the foundation trust and CCG told LDRS that "joint services are in place to assess, treat and support older people to return home from hospital on the same day, and further investment has been made in additional NHS funded beds, including in the independent sector".

They added that when patients were admitted to hospital they were "working to ensure arrangements are in place for people to leave hospital safely".

Extra staff were working in the hospital-to-home teams to help care home staff "provide nursing care for patients at home and more joined up care in the community".

Local voluntary partners are also providing a follow up service to "ensure patients are being supported to remain at home after leaving hospital", they said.

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]