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14
WQ.14/2020
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES
BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. BRELADE
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 21st JANUARY 2020
Question
Given that previous advice to the States has indicated that the Island needed a hospital with around 300 beds, will the Minister explain how proposals in the Jersey Care Model for a smaller hospital than this take into account the seasonal bed pressures that arise in the Island, such as those being experienced at present?
Answer
Our bed base is dynamic and changes according to need. Our current active bed base within the General Hospital is 193. We have expansion capacity up to 236 if required across various wards. Over recent years, medicine and practice has moved on. We have increased day case work (reducing demand for overnight beds), reduced length of stay of in-patients and introduced more ambulatory care. The latter changes bed provision to chairs and recliners as ambulatory patients are not admitted to beds overnight.
Under the proposed care model these and other assumptions have been considered. We recognise that it is likely there will be more day surgery, more work carried out in the community and more intensive use of theatres which will/should all exert downward pressure on the number of hospital beds. The health planners and economist will be analysing and looking to validate these assumptions as part of the review of the Jersey Care Model to help determine the average, but also the maximum, number of beds (including things such as times of pressure or major incident etc) required now and into the future with the known demographic.