A SHORTAGE of nursing staff may lead to a reduction of inpatient beds in a Meirionnydd hospital.

Last week Tywyn hospital was officially opened by several key health chiefs including cabinet secretary for health Vaughan Gething and Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, AM for Dwyfor and Meirionnydd.

One of the main attributes of the £5.5m redevelopment was the addition of a new 16-bed ward for patients in the area.

However, although the hospital has the capacity to open 16 beds, due to staffing shortages only 10 beds are currently operational causing increased waiting times for patients requiring treatment.

Chris Lynes, area director for clinical services, said: “We currently have ten beds operating in Tywyn Hospital, as has been the case since 2011, although the new ward has been designed with space to give us the option to have up to six more beds.

“However, at present we do not have enough nurses to enable us to safely open any extra inpatient beds and despite repeated attempts, we have not managed to recruit additional nurses to work in Tywyn.

“Although our recruitment efforts continue, we do not expect any significant increase in the number of nurses available to work in this area in the near future.”

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