Medics generally support plans to turn Swansea Bay's three main hospitals into centres of excellence - but have expressed deep-seated concerns about staff shortages, according to a report. One consultant physician described staffing issues as "an ongoing and repetitive problem", requiring a lot of money to be spent on locum doctors.
"All the (medical) specialties are constantly moving doctors and locums around, just to get us through the day," said the physician. Another said that doctors were "juggling a lot of balls in the air" to keep things going, according to the report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Cymru.
A lack of beds was another issue raised by medics and trainees during a virtual visit to Morriston and Singleton hospitals by three senior RCP representatives last November. The RCP Cymru report cited a sense of team spirit among medics and added that trainee doctors said they would return to Swansea Bay University Health Board, which covers Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, to work as consultants.
