Patients in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare who no longer need to be in hospital are taking up four wards' worth of space, according to health bosses.
While the number of patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 has fallen, local hospitals are still struggling to catch up with a backlog of pressures. Several problems are facing the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, which runs sites including the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Weston General Hospital.
These include long ambulance handover times, patients stuck in hospital who don’t need to be there known as 'bed blockers', and recruiting and retaining staff. Hundreds of nurses left the trust last year, and emergency departments sometimes see “unacceptable delays”, according to the trust's chief executive.
