The Shetland Health Board have recently made cuts to the capacity in the Gilbert Bain hospital, reducing the number of beds in the surgical ward from 20 to 13 due to "fewer patients requiring an overnight stay in hospital".

This capacity cut seems like a complete contradiction considering less than a week before this article was published, my 71 year old grandmother who was due to leave the ICU was denied a bed due to lack of capacity. My grandmother had spent over 3 weeks in the ICU in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, and when she was finally ready to get out she had to spend an extra 3 nights in the intensive care department in ARI due to a lack of beds. This put unneeded stress on my grandmother who was recovering from an illness and occupied a bed in the high-demand ICU when it wasn't needed. After an extra 3 days in the ICU they discharged her so she could return to the island even though she was still very frail and would have benefited from care in the Gilbert Bain.

These cuts show a flaw in the system and are just the latest of attacks on our NHS which have been going on for years. Sign this petition to try and reverse these cuts.