BEDS - End corridor care in A and E

13/09/2026

Eileen’s story shows the human cost of a health and care system under pressure.

When district hospitals are overwhelmed and local community beds are closed, the impact goes far beyond A&E. It means patients who are not safe to go home cannot leave hospital. It means families travelling hundreds of miles and spending hours on the road to visit loved ones placed far from home. And it can mean people spending their final days away from the community they have known all their lives.

Eileen is a Tywyn town councillor. She and her husband, Gwyn, lived in the area all their lives. Eileen has spent years helping others—fundraising for charities including Tŷ Gobaith and the British Heart Foundation, and always being there for people in her community.

But when Eileen needed help to be with Gwyn at the end of his life, it was the community that had to step in. The health service was overwhelmed, while the new inpatient ward in Tywyn remained closed.

The consultation on services in Tywyn opens this October. Please have your say.

Help us make the case to reopen Dyfi Ward and bring dignity back to local healthcare.

There can be no lasting solution to corridor care or the A&E crisis without safe discharge and properly funded community care. Community beds are not an optional extra—they are essential for patients, families and hospitals.

Please watch, share Eileen’s story, and take part in the consultation when it opens.

12/09/2026

Thank you to a contributor who shared these useful tips for anyone facing a wait in Glan Clwyd A&E. We thought they were so helpful that we would share them further.

The League of Friends has provided a secure mobile-phone charging station, with standard charging cables available inside. You can safely leave your phone to charge while you wait.

There is also now a volunteer-run shop in A&E, open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 2pm. The hope is to extend these hours as more volunteers come forward.

The main shop and café near the lifts can supply refreshments, toiletries, puzzle books, newspapers, magazines, eye masks and ear plugs.

A few practical suggestions if you are likely to be waiting:

- Bring a throw or warm layer and a neck pillow, so you can rest more comfortably while sitting up.
- Bring a book and reading glasses if you use them.
- Let people around you know your name, especially if you are resting, using the toilet or stepping away briefly—so you do not miss being called for treatment or tests.
- Make sure reception has your correct mobile number.
- If you go to your car or outside, let reception know where you are.

These small preparations will not solve the wider pressures facing A&E, but they may make a difficult wait a little more manageable.

The A&E shop and the support it offers rely on volunteers. If you have a few hours to spare and would like to help patients, visitors and staff at Glan Clwyd, please find out more here:

📌 BCUHB volunteering opportunities:
[https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/volunteer/](https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/volunteer/)

📌 League of Friends volunteering:
[https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/volunteer/league-of-friends/](https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/volunteer/league-of-friends/)

📌 Apply to become a BCUHB Robin volunteer:
[https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/volunteer/robin-ward-volunteer/apply-to-be-a-robin/](https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/volunteer/robin-ward-volunteer/apply-to-be-a-robin/)

Thank you again to the contributor for sharing advice that could genuinely help patients and families.

12/09/2026

As winter approaches, pressure on A&E and acute hospital beds will intensify again. Without the right rehabilitation and recovery support close to home, people can remain in hospital longer than necessary—affecting their independence, families and the wider NHS.

Wrexham residents have a chance to act now.

The consultation on the future of Penley Hospital closes on 7 October 2026. None of the current options include restoring inpatient beds—but the Rainbow Foundation has put forward an alternative: the Rainbow Pathway.

The Foundation’s fully costed, staffed proposal would provide community-based recovery and rehabilitation for older people, helping them regain independence and return home safely. It estimates this could save BCUHB around £800,000 a year by reducing pressure on acute beds.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

📍 Drop in to Overton Village Hall
Tuesday 15 September, 2pm–7pm

Speak to BCUHB representatives and ask them to support the Rainbow Pathway for Penley Hospital.

📝 Complete the consultation before 7 October 2026.

Even if you responded previously, you must respond again—earlier submissions will not carry over.

When completing the consultation:

✅ Select “None of these options”
✅ Write “Rainbow Foundation Pathway” in the alternative-suggestion box
✅ Add your own words about why local beds, recovery support and care closer to home matter to you
✅ Please like, share and help spread this message as far and wide as you can

📌 Health Board consultation:
[https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/shaping-the-future-of-penley-hospital/](https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/get-involved/shaping-the-future-of-penley-hospital/)

📌 More on the Rainbow Pathway:
[https://rainbowfndn.org.uk/penley-hospital/](https://rainbowfndn.org.uk/penley-hospital/)

Save Penley’s beds. Support the Rainbow Pathway.

In Wales today, every bed counts.

10/09/2026

We know that the beds shortage across North Wales and Wales as a whole has led to a crisis in our A&E departments and endemic corridor care. This cannot be solved overnight.

However, there is no reason why patient overflow should come at the cost of the humanity and dignity of the very ill and very vulnerable.

The experiences highlighted in this report from Glan Clwyd are deeply concerning. Patients should not have to endure long waits in unsuitable conditions, without adequate comfort, food, drink, access to toilets or the reassurance of knowing when they may be seen. Staff working in these conditions also need practical support.

The BEDS campaign has written an open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, all the Chairs of the Health Boards and every MS, asking for some reasonable and quickly actionable changes to A&E. These steps could help prevent horrendous experiences like this one and give patients and staff back their dignity.

[Read the Denbighshire Free Press report here](https://www.denbighshirefreepress.co.uk/news/26533936.patient-safety-governance-issues-revealed-glan-clwyd-e/)

- Provide more comfortable, softer seating in A&E. This can reduce pressure
damage in vulnerable patients, helping to prevent sores, deep vein thrombosis
and avoid consequent prolonged nursing care.

- Restore regular food and drink trolleys for patients and relatives. Before Covid,
“Red Robin” volunteers took refreshments to those waiting, helping prevent
dehydration, boosting morale and supporting people unable to access vending
machines. Welsh communities have always been willing to help; they need only
to be asked.

- Introduce a buzzer system to call patients. Cafés and restaurants use vibrating
buzzers to notify customers when orders are ready. A similar system in A&E
would allow patients to use the toilet or move around to find a more comfortable
place to wait without fear of missing their name being called.

- We also feel that consideration should be given to holding disruptive and
intoxicated patients in a separate area, which is properly supervised as some of
them will be vulnerable, in a distressed mental state or with a hidden, serious
illness (e.g. hypoglycaemia/hepatic failure).

- Limit accompanying relatives to one per adult patient to reduce overcrowding
and the risk of spreading airborne infections.

- Clean and service toilets more regularly in areas where very sick patients are
waiting.

- Ensure access to bathroom facilities for patients waiting over 12 hours.

- Increase early-morning staffing so that people who have waited overnight can be
seen and treated promptly. Indeed, patients who are not likely to be seen during
the night could be sent home with advice to return in the morning to dedicated,
fast review A & E clinics, without losing their place in the queue.

- Ensure patients referred with a GP letter are seen quickly on arrival by the
specialist team to whom they have been referred. Putting their emergency
referrals back at the bottom of the triage pile, when they have already been
triaged by a Specialist in Generalism, puts those patients at risk from the
increased delay.

- Provide more consultant support for junior colleagues triaging A&E, especially
out of hours and at weekends, so that life threatening conditions are recognised
in time and so that simple situations are not over investigated.

- Reduce pharmacy delays in supplying discharge prescriptions, so that patients
can go home in a timely fashion once they have been seen or discharged from
the wards.

Measures for staff

- Provide hot food and drinks for A&E staff, especially out of hours and at
weekends.

- Provide lockers for personal belongings.

These are not unreasonable demands. They are immediate, practical measures that could improve safety, reduce distress and make a difficult experience more humane for patients, relatives and the staff caring for them.

“Serious” concerns were identified at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd’s emergency department during an unannounced inspection, a report has found.

08/09/2026

PART 3: BACK TO BEVAN

This is the third and final strand of our open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Health Board Chairs and every Member of the Senedd.

Nye Bevan believed healthcare was both the duty and the right of the community. Wales has a strong tradition of caring for our neighbours — but that tradition must be backed by the resources, staff and services needed to make it real.

“Community by Design” and virtual wards may have a role for some people. But they cannot replace community hospitals across rural Wales. Providing intensive care in every home is difficult, costly and impossible without sustained staffing and resources.

We need a practical approach that builds on what works.

Primary care must be properly resourced and expanded. It takes time and investment, but it remains the most cost-effective long-term way to provide coordinated, compassionate care and help keep people out of expensive acute beds.

GPs and primary-care teams understand the health needs of their communities. They are central to preventing illness escalating into crisis, supporting people with long-term conditions, and helping patients receive care closer to home.

Community hospitals must also be at the heart of this approach — providing rehabilitation, recovery, assessment and step-down care when people need more support than can safely be provided at home.

Wales also has an outstanding charity and voluntary sector, ready and willing to help. But volunteers and community organisations cannot be expected to fill the gap left by lost NHS beds, overstretched social care or insufficient clinical staffing.

This is about more than managing a winter crisis. It is about rebuilding a Welsh health and care service that is local, compassionate and properly resourced — a service that treats people with dignity and works for the benefit of all.

We cannot be proud of a system in which people are afraid of falling ill.

We can — and must — do better.

BACK TO BEVAN.
CARE CLOSE TO HOME.
COMMUNITY AT THE HEART OF THE NHS

07/09/2026

PART 2: USING WHAT WE HAVE

This is the second of three strands in our open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Health Board Chairs and every Member of the Senedd.

Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, said:

“Community hospitals will become more, not less important, because they are in exactly the right place to meet the challenges of ageing and frailty in rural and coastal communities. They will reduce the pressure on acute hospital beds.”

We are calling for inpatient wards at Tywyn and Penley to reopen, and for community beds to be protected and restored across Wales.

We stand with communities in Ystradgynlais, Maesteg and Bridgend, where local inpatient capacity is under threat, has been lost, or remains uncertain.

At Tywyn, the refurbished ward has been closed since April 2023, with staffing difficulties cited. A temporary closure must not become the default. We need clear evidence of sustained recruitment and retention efforts.

At Penley, the Rainbow Foundation worked with the Health Board on the Rainbow Pathway — a sustainable, fully costed plan for step-down, rehabilitation and inpatient care.

It has been removed from the public-consultation options, along with every other option including inpatient beds.

We join the call to restore the Rainbow Pathway, so local people can consider it properly.

In Powys, including Ystradgynlais, proposals could cut community beds from around 160 to 60. Public meetings have overflowed as communities ask why well-used local hospitals are being threatened amid severe A&E pressure.

In Maesteg, people still need answers:

- Why do beds remain closed?
- Where will the proposed health centre be?
- What care will it provide?
- What will happen to the existing hospital?

These are not redundant buildings or outdated services. They are beds for recovery, rehabilitation, assessment and care closer to home.

They can help patients leave acute wards safely, release beds for those in greatest need, and reduce the pressure that ends in corridors and long waits in A&E.

STOP BED CLOSURES.
REOPEN USABLE WARDS.
RESTORE COMMUNITY CAPACITY.

06/09/2026

“Y Pethau Bychain” is the first of three levels of action proposed in our open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Health Board Chairs and every Member of the Senedd.

Inspired by Dewi Sant’s call to “do the little things,” it highlights practical measures that could be introduced quickly to restore dignity and reduce risk in A&E this winter: comfortable seating, food and drink, clean accessible toilets, safe waiting arrangements, GP referrals being prioritised, senior medics at the front door, and faster discharge medicines.

These are not luxuries. They are basic, compassionate care.

But small changes alone will not end corridor care. The letter moves from immediate measures to the bigger changes needed across the system. A&E pressure will continue while patients cannot move into hospital beds — and while community beds continue to be lost or threatened.

Until bed closures are stopped and community capacity is restored, unsafe waits will continue.

Y Pethau Bychain yn A&E

Part 1: Immediate measures for dignity, comfort and safer care.

04/09/2026

BEDS has written an open letter to the Minister for Health and Social Services, Health Board Chairs and every Member of the Senedd, calling for urgent action to end the devastating pressure and indignity experienced by patients in A&E departments across Wales.

Our letter does not only identify the crisis—it proposes immediate, practical measures that could make a real difference to patients, relatives and exhausted staff. These include better seating, access to food, drink and toilets, improved early-morning staffing, faster discharge prescriptions and stronger senior clinical support at the A&E front door

But small changes alone will not solve a system-wide problem.

Wales has lost around 40% of its hospital beds in north Wales over the past 15 years, mainly in community settings. We are calling for the reopening of inpatient wards at Tywyn and Penley, and for an end to further community-hospital bed closures across Wales. A refurbished 17-bed ward at Tywyn is standing empty, while evidence cited in the letter indicates that reopening four beds at Penley could save NHS Wales £2.4 million over three years.

No one should be left waiting in pain, without privacy, comfort or dignity, because there is nowhere safe for them to go after emergency treatment. Community hospitals and inpatient beds are not a luxury: they are part of the solution to safe hospital flow, compassionate care and reducing avoidable pressure on A&E.

Please read, share and add your voice to the call for action.

Martin Shipton A group of distinguished retired medics has called on Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor to block controversial plans to close down beds in community hospitals so they can ease the “devastating pressure” on accident and emergency units. They have also recommended a series of small m...

04/09/2026

BEDS welcomes the Welsh Government’s focus on reducing NHS waiting lists. Faster appointments, scans, tests and planned operations could make a real difference for patients, and there is much in this announcement that is positive.

🕒 Prioritising long waiters

It is right to act for people who have waited far too long. How will the system also ensure that a newly identified urgent condition is not overtaken by a less urgent case simply because they have waited for a shorter time?

🚗 Treatment in another health-board area

Being offered treatment elsewhere may mean a faster appointment or operation. What support will be available where a patient is frail, disabled, in pain, has no private transport, or faces a lengthy journey for a short appointment? In some parts of Wales, patients have already faced journeys of many hours.

🔎 Earlier appointments, scans and tests

Faster specialist assessment and diagnosis should reduce the risk of patients becoming more unwell while waiting. Will GPs have appropriate direct access to scans and tests, so the clinician who knows the patient’s symptoms, history and risks can request the right investigation without unnecessary delay?

📋 “Better referral management”

Reviewing referrals earlier could help ensure that patients reach the right service first time. If a GP’s referral is changed, delayed or redirected, who will make that decision? Will they have examined the patient, seen the full clinical background and carry responsibility for the outcome?

⚖️ More consistent urgent-care decisions

It is sensible to ensure similar patients are treated fairly wherever they live. A referral form cannot always capture the concerns of an experienced GP, or the assessment of a surgeon who has examined and knows the patient. Where there is a difference of opinion, who will have the authority to override that clinical judgement—and on what basis?

🩺 Follow-up after treatment

Not every patient needs a routine follow-up appointment after surgery. These appointments can also identify complications, check recovery and give patients confidence to raise concerns early. If follow-up is reduced, will patients have a simple and timely route back to the surgical team, rather than being directed to already busy GP practices or A&E?

🏥 Surgical hubs, beds and corridor care

Dedicated centres for planned operations could protect routine surgery from emergency pressures. Waiting lists, however, are only one part of the NHS crisis.

Corridor care will not be solved simply by seeing more people in clinic or carrying out more operations. It reflects a lack of capacity throughout the system: too few staffed hospital beds, insufficient community inpatient and rehabilitation beds, delayed discharges, limited social-care support and overstretched emergency departments.

When patients who are ready to leave hospital have nowhere suitable to go, acute beds remain occupied. When acute beds are full, patients wait in A&E—and increasingly in corridors. When beds are unavailable, planned operations are postponed, regardless of how many surgical hubs or theatre sessions are available.

BEDS supports measures that help patients be assessed, diagnosed and treated sooner. We are disappointed that, once again, the main focus is on waiting-list targets rather than the fundamental capacity needed to keep patients out of corridors and allow safe care across the whole NHS.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3renz3jj95o

Clinically led approach to clear longest waits and bring the overall waiting list down to pre-pandemic levels before the end of this Senedd term. More surgical capacity targeting the specialities where waits are longest. Improvements to how patients are referred and how follow-up appointments are ma...

25/08/2026

With the heatwaves this summer, Welsh A&E attendances reached record levels. Sadly, as we head towards winter, it is difficult to imagine the pressure easing for patients, families or the staff working in our emergency departments.

We already know our A&Es are under enormous strain. We know waiting times extend far beyond the 12-hour point where the official statistics stop counting.

At BEDS, we want to talk about solutions.

Yes, many of the answers require major systemic change: a long-term strategy, proper workforce planning, better access to community and primary care, investment in social care, and funding directed towards improvements that last—not short-term statistical bumps that look good in a press release.

But there are smaller, practical things that can make a real difference too.

Our own suggestions are on their way, but first we want to draw on the experience and knowledge of the people who follow this page. Many of you have spent long hours in A&E—as patients, relatives, carers, nurses, doctors, paramedics, support staff and advocates.

So, if someone you loved had to go to A&E this winter, what would you advise them to do?

From knowing where to park, taking a phone charger, bringing essential medication or a blanket, arranging someone to update the family, speaking up if symptoms worsen, or simply preparing for a long wait—what are your most useful, practical tips?

Please share your **Top 10 A&E Visitor Tips** in the comments.

Let’s create a constructive, compassionate list that could genuinely help patients, relatives and staff through what may be another very difficult winter.