Exclusive: Hospital bed capacity reduced by 25% in Jersey’s hospital due to lack of demand

There are now 25% fewer beds available to be used by inpatients at Jersey’s General Hospital and Overdale than 18 months ago, because of a fall in the number of patients needing care.

An ITV News Freedom of Information request, made following concerns raised by a nurse, reveals there are now 172 beds available for patients, compared to 232 beds in April last year.

Hospital management say the number of beds available on wards is "flexed" to match demand and, if there is a need to increase the numbers in future, they will do so.

But the health worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said she believed the reduction was due to cost-cutting.

Responding to that claim, General Hospital Managing Director Rob Sainsbury said he disagrees with the statement.

But Mr Sainsbury said he understood that some people would be worried by an apparent reduction in the number of available beds.

He said Jersey's bed base has been "a bit more static than other areas" but the hospital does not see "huge swings" that might be seen elsewhere around capacity.

The information, released by government following a query submitted on 21 August, shows the 23 beds at Overdale closed completely to inpatients from June this year, while at the same time the beds in the General Hospital had been reducing from 209 in spring last year to 172 in July this year.

The government constructed a temporary Nightingale wing on a field at Millbrook earlier this year at a cost of £14 million to cope with short-term additional demand that coronavirus may cause.

It was originally announced as a coronavirus ward that would be in place for four to six months.

Its purpose then changed to be a flexible ward for any purposes required by hospital management and is currently expected to remain well into 2021.

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