Care Opinion

Bed management

Posted By Purdie

"Bed management"

About: Royal Alexandra Hospital / General Medicine (Wards 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18 & 27)

(as a friend),

I visited a friend and was surprised to see an extra bed in a 6 bed bay. Surely this is against all Health and Safety and Infection Control Policies?

My point is, a new hospital within NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde has been built with single rooms in order to prevent the spread of infection, I was concerned to visit this hospital and see there is an extra bed in a 6 bed room. This extra bed was right at the window and in close proximity to both bins in the clinical area. 

This is in no way a criticism of the staff but more of the systems that have allowed this to happen. 

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Responses

Response from Nicole McInally, Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 7 months ago
Nicole McInally
Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Submitted on 31/07/2024 at 16:02
Published on Care Opinion at 16:02

picture of Nicole McInally

Posted on behalf of Stephanie Leca, General Manager, Clyde Sector

Dear Purdie

Thank you for escalating your concerns regarding the placement of patients in our medical wards. I am sorry to read that this has given you cause for concern. It might be helpful if I explain that the Royal Alexandra Hospital has a limited number of single rooms and there is a high demand for these rooms every day, we have no option but to work with the existing hospital footprint.

I can confirm that there are times when the wards receive an additional patient. This arrangement complies with the Continuous Flow Model which is used across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, (including the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital). This process involves the temporary placement of an additional patient from the assessment unit, who will then be placed in a ward bed space following the discharge of a patient from the ward. The Infection Control team are fully sighted on this process. This in turn supports the admission of patients from the Emergency departments into the space made available in the assessment unit.

Kind Regards

Stephanie

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Purdie (a friend)

Thank you for your response. I would not be happy if this were a member of my family.

I wouldn’t have thought it safe for a bed to be placed right by both general waste and clinical waste bins? Even for a short time.

I 100% fully appreciate just how difficult it must be to be working within the constraints that you are and appreciate just how hard staff work to deliver care to their patients.

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