BEDS - End corridor care in A and E

28/05/2026

As consultations reopen on closed and reduced step-down care across Wales, we have real, community-backed solutions on the table — and we need to push to make sure they aren’t ignored.

During the Penley Hospital engagement process, a proposal for a 12 bed step-down and rehabilitation facility emerged strongly from community feedback — potentially in partnership with the Rainbow Foundation, whose work supporting older people’s independence is already valued locally. This model would require no multi-million pound rebuild and could be operational far sooner than any large-scale hospital development. It would relieve pressure on Wrexham Maelor, freeing beds beyond A&E corridors for patients who need more urgent care.
Yet the current BCUHB shortlisted options have ruled out beds entirely.

That is not good enough.

Please contact your representatives today — it takes minutes at writetothem.com — and ask them to push for rehabilitation beds to be reinstated in the system. Patients deserve a safe route home. Our hospitals need the breathing space. And communities like ours deserve solutions that actually work for us.

From left – Susan Ikin of the Rainbow Foundation, Llyr Gruffydd MS and Councillor Marc Jones. Plans to re-open Penley community hospital by ...

27/05/2026

It’s been a strange few weeks as Wales adjusts to the new political scene and gives our new representatives time to settle into their roles. But it seems the purdah pause is well and truly over for our health boards.

The “consultations” postponed during the election are back underway and, as far as we can tell, the direction of travel remains unchanged.

In this week’s stakeholder bulletin from BCUHB, three options for the future of Penley have been announced. Not one includes reopening the inpatient beds.

Meanwhile, in Tywyn, a fourth balanced room has been announced, although none of the previous attendees have received the financial information they requested at the previous meeting, which they felt was imperative before taking a vote on any options for the future of the hospital.

Maesteg has still not been given a clear commitment that community beds will be restored, and the promised health and wellbeing hub has yet to materialise.

In Rhyl, residents are still waiting to see visible construction progress on the promised Royal Alexandra development, including its 14-bed ready-to-go-home reablement unit.

At the same time, the new Cabinet Minister for Health and Care has pledged to cut NHS waiting times and improve access to ambulance and emergency department services - both problems heavily impacted by the lack of available beds across Wales.

So why are health boards continuing to move away from local bed provision?

Help us make the message clear.

Please write to your representatives and help them understand the necessity and urgency of step-down care beds across Wales.

Comment below for a template letter in English or Welsh.

You can find your representatives by entering your postcode at www.writetothem.com.

26/05/2026

Thank you Darren Millar, we very much support this call to action. North Wales alone has lost 20% of its beds over the past 15-20 years and the situation in the 3 major hospitals A&E departments is unsustainable and systemically cruel to both staff and patients.

If you haven’t already, please help by writing to your local representatives, council and Senedd, and asking for an increase in step-down community beds to ease the pressure on A&E. Comment for a template.

You can find your representatives by entering your postcode at www.writetothem.com

16/05/2026

Heartening to hear First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth speak about creating a health service fit for the future, and putting health and care on a more sustainable path for Wales.

But we know that can’t happen without two things: a proper workforce plan, and the step-down care needed so patients can get into our major hospitals when they need them and return home safely when they’re ready.

If we are serious about fixing flow through our hospitals, reducing pressure on staff, and caring for people closer to home, then we must invest long term in putting beds back into our communities.

Now is the time to make sure our new representatives understand how urgent this is.
Please write to your representatives and ask them to support community beds and step-down care across Wales.

Contact us if you’d like a template letter or help finding the right contact details.

14/05/2026

Congratulations to Mabon ap Gwynfor on being named Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care for Wales yesterday.
Here he is earlier this year at Ysbyty Tywyn in southern Gwynedd, speaking about the importance of the step-down care system and the fight to reopen the Dyfi Ward.

Now that Wales’ representatives are in place and our new First Minister has said his bosses are the people of Wales, let’s make sure our government knows what we want them working on. It’s time to get emailing, writing, and filling those inboxes — flooding Cardiff with the message:

⚪ Corridor care is not acceptable.
⚪ The crisis in A&E cannot continue.
⚪ Wales needs our community beds reopened where possible, and replaced where it’s not.

Comment below and we’ll send you a letter template in English or Welsh.

This is about caring for our community and putting healthcare back where it belongs — at the heart of the communities it serves.

06/05/2026

Ahead of the Senedd election 2026, we have run through what every party says about improving the NHS in Wales and their key health manifesto pledges - https://ebx.sh/SAP5sF

05/05/2026

To the leaders of the next Welsh Government — whoever you may be,

We are the BEDS Campaign. We are not aligned to any political party. We stand for our communities — for the young and the old — and for those who need care most: the sick and vulnerable.

In your first days of leadership, we ask you to act with urgency and with vision.

Across Wales, there are closed wards and empty beds. At the same time, our A&E departments are under unbearable pressure — patients waiting for hours, even days, in conditions that are undignified and unsafe. Staff are stretched beyond their limits.

These beds once served our communities. They can do so again.

Will you commit to reopening them — safely, sustainably, and as part of a long-term plan to restore care closer to home?

There are skilled doctors, nurses, midwives and paramedics who cannot find stable work, while health boards spend tens of millions on agency staffing. This is not sustainable.

Will you deliver a national workforce plan that:
- invests in permanent staffing,
- strengthens rural healthcare,
- and supports professionals to build their lives within the communities they serve?

In our hospitals, patients are waiting in corridors. Staff are doing their best in systems that are failing them.

Will you:
- ensure experienced clinicians are present at the front door of A&E to improve triage,
- reduce delays by expanding step-down care and reablement,
- and prioritise patient dignity and safety at every stage of care?

Right now, people are dying while waiting for treatment.

This is not inevitable. It is the result of choices — and it can be changed by choices.

Short-term fixes have not worked. Agency spending has not solved the crisis. Private referrals have not solved the crisis.

Wales does not just need more spending.

Wales needs beds.

Beds in our communities. Beds for recovery. Beds that free up A&E and allow staff to deliver the care they trained to give.

Will you help us bring them back?

Because our communities cannot wait any longer.

05/05/2026

Part 2: Recruitment

BCUHB say they still have sustainability issues around staffing Dyfi Ward.

But they have also said they have no intention of further recruitment.

So how is the problem supposed to be solved?

Tywyn has 16 modern inpatient beds that could be helping people recover closer to home, easing pressure on larger hospitals, and supporting patients across rural Gwynedd and beyond.

But those beds need staff.

And staffing problems do not disappear when a health board stops trying to recruit.

They get worse.

If there is no recruitment plan, then there is no real plan to reopen Dyfi Ward.

Rural communities should not lose vital healthcare services because workforce problems have been allowed to become permanent.

The election is coming.

Candidates need to answer clearly:

Will you challenge BCUHB on recruitment?
Will you support a proper workforce plan for Tywyn?
Will you fight to reopen the wards across Beti Cadwaladr that only need proper staffing?

Community beds matter.
We want them back.

03/05/2026

This campaign is not politically affiliated. We focus on one specific area of devolved government responsibility: healthcare in Wales.

With elections approaching, there is a lot of confusing messaging online, especially with council elections taking place in England at the same time.

Here’s a simple checklist made by Richard Clarke showing what the Welsh Government can and cannot directly impact.

When you vote, it helps to know which decisions sit with which government.

One thing the Welsh Government absolutely can do is stop the centralisation of healthcare, increase the number of beds across Wales, and restore vital healthcare services in our local communities.

More local beds. Safer care. Less pressure on A&E. Healthcare closer to home.

That is what we are campaigning for.

03/05/2026

Part 1: The Closure

This is the story of a community hospital, imagined, funded, built and sustained by a rural community.

This is the story of Tywyn.

But it could be the story of any community hospital in rural Wales.

Tywyn’s Dyfi Ward has 16 modern inpatient beds. Beds that could be helping people recover closer to home. Beds that could be supporting families, easing pressure on bigger hospitals, and reducing the strain across our health board.

Instead, they remain closed.

At a time when patients are waiting too long, services are under huge pressure, and money is being spent covering workforce gaps, closing community hospital beds makes no sense.

The election is coming.

Candidates need to hear this loudly and clearly:

Community beds matter.
Rural healthcare matters.
Tywyn matters.
We want our beds back.