Newton Stewart hospital bed limit remains in place

A bed limit at a south of Scotland hospital is to remain in place - after staff recruited to address the situation took up posts elsewhere.

Long-term sickness saw the cut from 22 to 14 beds put in place at Newton Stewart in May this year.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway said it had been able to accommodate anyone needing a bed since then.

However, staff recruited to help tackle the issue have now taken up posts at the Galloway Community Hospital.

General manager of community health and social care Graham Abrines said: "In order to ensure the safety of patients and staff, a decision was made in May to limit bed numbers from 22 to 14 and we moved quickly to recruit staff to post.

"We were successful in recruiting new nurses at a point when newly-qualified staff were becoming available, and we had been preparing to lift the cap on beds in September.

"Since then, however, other vacancies have arisen for registered nurses at Galloway Community Hospital in Wigtownshire which those staff have pursued and taken up.

"So while we very much welcome that staff have chosen to continue to work within Wigtownshire in other busy, demanding frontline roles, we are unfortunately not able to lift the bed limit at the cottage hospital at this time."