A NEWLY re-elected councillor has launched a campaign to have beds reinstated at a community hospital.
Cllr Brian Jones, county councillor for the Rhyl Ty Newydd ward, is calling on Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) to carry out an "urgent formal feasibility study" on reinstating a temporary patient bed capacity at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl.
In a statement on charge.org, cllr Jones said: "The Alex Angels are a group of health care professionals who started their careers at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Rhyl. We recognise the very real need for a solution to chronic, long-standing bed shortages within BCUHB.
"Our petition calls on BCUHB to carry out an urgent formal feasibility study on reinstating a temporary patient bed capacity at the Royal Alexandra - a currently redundant facility which could relieve bed space in the main acute hospitals, whilst the new hospital is being built.
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"Following this, we would welcome a formal meeting with BCUHB to discuss the content of the study, and further highlight how it could improve the situation."
Cllr Jones, who previously served as a Rhyl South East ward councillor and Denbighshire County Council’s cabinet lead member for waste, transport and the environment, lost his seat in 2022.
He was re-elected to office during a by-election which was held on Thursday, February 9 2023. The by-election was held following the death of cllr Brian Blakeley.
Cllr Jones added: "If we could get support from the community in North Wales to back this petition, the health board would have to take what the Alex Angels are proposing seriously."
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The petition has attracted more than 450 signatures.
The Royal Alexandra does not provide inpatient care. In 2009, the wards were closed but out-patient, physiotherapy, x-ray and administration departments are still housed there.
Mair Roberts, Alex Angels founder who worked at the hospital between 1966-1969, is supporting the campaign.
She said: "It is such a beautiful building and to see it going to rack and ruin is heartbreaking.
"There is currently nowhere for patients to convalesce, they axed community beds across North Wales and reduced capacity when they did Glan Clwyd up. Sometimes patients just need somewhere to go for a few days and the Alex would be ideal for that and would help with bed blocking."
Rhyl East councillor Justine Evans said: "In an ideal world I would like to see the proposals for the North Denbighshire Hospital progress. This would provide people in the area with the much-needed health services they require and relieve pressures at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.
"However, we have been waiting over a decade and they are now saying they don't have the funding. Both the MP and MSs for the area are continually putting pressure on the Welsh Government to ensure the project goes ahead, but in the interim period what the Alex Angels are proposing would help remedy the bed blocking situation.”
The Welsh Government revealed back in 2013 that a new hospital would be built in Rhyl, on the former Royal Alexandra site, to serve North Denbighshire. Work was expected to start about December 2021 but there has still not been a spade in the ground.
Earlier in January a Welsh Government spokesperson said they were "awaiting for an update on work being undertaken by the health board following a meeting between the health minister and partners.”
BCUHB were approached for comment.
Sign the petition here.
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