A source previously told WalesOnline ‘there are a lot of very upset staff at Gorseinon Hospital’
20:19, 11 Sep 2025Updated 20:19, 11 Sep 2025
The hospital has an inpatient ward and community clinics (Image: Richard Youle )
A Welsh health board is urgently considering moving patients from one city hospital to another amid “serious red flag safety concerns”. Swansea Bay University Health Board said it was looking to transfer inpatients from the west ward at Gorseinon Hospital to an empty ward at Singleton Hospital.
Although no final decision has been made the health board said plans had been drafted in response to serious concerns around the staffing of the 30-bed ward and how it could affect patient safety.
The plans include transferring 30 beds to Singleton on a temporary basis from October 1. The update comes almost one week after a person, who wished to remain anonymous, told WalesOnline some staff at Gorseinon were unhappy with initial plans announced to transfer patients.
The health board issued an update on Thursday, September 11, following another meeting that day.
A spokesman said: “In relation to the west ward specifically high levels of staff sickness and other availability issues have resulted in excessively high usage of agency and temporary staff to fill gaps on shifts – sometimes as much as 50% of the total staffing.
“This hinders good team working and places additional pressure on substantive staff who often have to supervise and support the agency and temporary workers.
“A number of concerns have been raised by staff from a range of professional disciplines at Gorseinon regarding the west ward and these concerns continue to be raised.
“While measures have been taken to address the issues raised we are clear that they have not had the impact needed.
“This is not considered sustainable and the clinical advice the board has received at its meeting today is that this raises serious red flag safety concerns that need to be addressed.
“That’s why plans are currently being put in place to pre-empt safety-related incidents through the transfer of the 30 beds to Singleton on a temporary basis from October 1.
“The health board will consider these plans and the rationale behind them later this month as it makes its final decision.
“Temporarily transferring the west ward to Singleton and consolidating the relevant staff there will allow teams to support one another and enable the health board to manage staffing pressures more effectively, reducing our dependency on agency staff.”
Should the transfer go ahead the health board will seek to use up the space for other NHS healthcare purposes before public “engagement” would help to inform long-term plans.
The statement continued: “No other non-health board purposes are being considered for the west ward at Gorseinon in the short, medium, or long term and no requests have been received.
“For the avoidance of doubt false rumours circulating online that the west ward will be repurposed to house asylum seekers are entirely baseless and completely untrue.”
According to the health board the west ward at Gorseinon provides 30 “step-down” beds that help patients to “bridge the gap between hospital care and home”.
The beds serve patients from across the entire Swansea area as well as some from the Neath Port Talbot area.
Apart from the west ward Gorseinon Hospital is also home to a range of other services including outpatient, blood test, and community services. These will not be affected by the temporary closure.
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