Long-term solutions needed for hospital bed occupancy, GSD says

Long-term solutions are needed for bed occupancy issues at St Bernard’s Hospital the GSD has said, adding that the move of long-stay patients to the Rooke is a “short term measure” due to continued issues such as Gibraltar’s population growth and ageing population.

This statement comes after St Bernard’s Hospital was at 98% occupancy after an “unprecedented number of admissions” from a cruise ship, the GHA Director General told this newspaper.

The GSD said the Government’s explanations on why some elderly patients were transferred to the maternity ward “fall very short”.

The party pointed out how the local population has grown significantly over the last few decades, adding that “it is clear” that the hospital is managing with bed capacity designed for a population that was smaller and where the demographics were different.

The party said that side by side with population growth there is a larger elderly population and there is a need to have a debate on capacity of certain wards at St Bernard’s.

“There is a need for a proper examination of the capacity issue,” Shadow Health Minister, Joelle Ladislaus, said.

“Equally beyond capacity those beds would need to be suitably staffed, within an area that is clinically appropriate and actually available when a patient needs one. It’s important to give the figures context.”

“The hospital may have been at 60%-70% occupancy last week, but the 30%-40% remaining may have been beds within a paediatric ward, the maternity ward and the rehabilitation ward, whereas the number of acute adult beds available may have been significantly low, so the pressure on acute adult services remained very real.”

“The Minister for Health herself has made the distinction in Parliament when giving responses.”

“In a Parliamentary exchange in November 2024, the Minister distinguished between 159 adult beds that the hospital was designed to accommodate and 142 active daily managed beds. That is an acknowledgement that all beds are not there to serve the same purpose.”

The GSD said that the move of approximately 70 elderly and long-stay patients to the Rooke will ease immediate pressure on hospital beds, but said that this will be a short-term measure.

The party added that the Minister for Health Gemma Arias-Vasquez has acknowledged that some of those beds will be lost in the hospital, and that the Director General has made statements as to the intention to repatriate services to Gibraltar within the empty bed space.

The GSD questioned what then would happen once the Rooke facility is full?

“We know it will be full from day one and that there is currently a massive waiting list for Mount Alvernia and therefore there will be also a big waiting list for the for the Rooke facility,” the GSD said.

“If there is then a need for elderly patients to be admitted to St Bernard’s Hospital, there will be even less beds than there are now and that will inevitably significantly increase the pressure on acute adult services.”

The GSD also questioned what are the Government going to do to address the issue of bed capacity in the long-term?

The party added that the same issues that arise now will result if elderly patients who are recovering from hospital care cannot go home and cannot go to another facility.

“All this amounts to bad planning by Ms Arias-Vasquez not considering the capacity needs in an important area when it is obvious to so many people,” the GSD said.

The GSD said that every time that the Opposition has raised the issue of bed shortages at St. Bernard’s Hospital, the Government have attributed capacity issues on increased seasonal demand or unusual increases in the number of admissions.

The party said that capacity issues are not an unusual occurrence at the GHA and the Government “continues to hide behind the figures while ignoring the reality on the ground”, adding that the Government’s reaction to the GSD’s calls for transparency were “no different”.

Dr Bosio had told this newspaper that was “not ideal” that three elderly long stay patients had been moved to the maternity ward to make room for more admissions and emergencies should they arise, but that this was not an unusual practice in a hospital.

He described how there are 11 beds in the maternity ward and “rarely more than one or two” patients.

“The comments made by the Director General as to the admission of long-stay patients to the maternity ward came as a surprise,” Ms Ladislaus said in response.

“There may rarely be more than one or two patients within an 11-bed maternity ward but, again, that does not reflect the reality that on any given day numerous women may go into labour and very suddenly require those hospital beds; they cannot be admitted to A&E.”

“Nor have any replies been forthcoming as to the reason for the drastic decision when it clearly flies in the face of standard policy, as demonstrated by the comments made by Minister Arias-Vasquez in November 2024 when she stated that children and adults would ‘obviously’ not be mixed within a ward setting even when contingency plans provide for patients being moved to other wards or clinical areas.”