A Cardiff GP has said new Welsh Government guidance for hospitals to discharge patients without care packages in place is "terrifying". Dr Sayma Ahmed, of Cloughmore Surgery in the Splott area of Cardiff, responded to the plans on BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday and believes they are not going to "fix" the 'bed blocking' problem in Welsh hospitals.
Wales' Chief Nursing Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer wrote a letter to senior NHS staff on December 30, 2022 offering "advice to support decisions to discharge". They began by acknowledging the "exceptional pressure" the NHS is currently facing - including more than 500 confirmed Covid cases in Welsh hospitals and "rapid increases in the other respiratory viruses not seen as usual during the pandemic" - resulting in "long delays in the provision of care, with their attendant risks".
The letter urged that "day to day clinical decision making must adapt to these exceptional pressures" and "our hospital capacity must be preserved for those at greatest risk with greatest chance of benefit." It continued: "This will require us to make every effort to keep people at home, not to admit people to hospital unless absolutely necessary and to return those in hospital to their homes or alternative place of safety as quickly as is possible."
