Hospital wards in the public hospitals are the old style, many beds to a room.
But the scheme has been so successful that many beds earmarked for heart patients are now lying empty.
As Unity social worker Seamus Roan(ph) points out, what few have reopened don't offer as many beds as they used to.
Coun Stuart Egan, the Vale's cabinet member for adults, claims money has been spent on 12 empty beds "for many years" at Barry's Ty Dyfan care home.
In the latter part of the 19th century, many of the urban poor either shared beds, or took different shifts in the same bed.
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But Councillor Patrick Heesom, who represents the Mostyn area of Flintshire, said allowing so many cockle pickers out on to the beds is "a recipe for chaos".
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Using money from a national lottery, he built many hospitals, creating 8, 000 new beds.
To illustrate his ideas he turned a patch of grass near a housing estate in South London into such a garden, inspired by the flower beds at Buckingham Palace, and incorporating beans, salads and many other foodstuffs.
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Built to house as many as 500 people, only one-tenth of its beds are in use.
Patrick Pelloux, head of France's Association of Hospital Emergency Ward Doctors, warned that many sick people would have to wait on stretchers for hospital beds, French radio reported.
Many experts believe that the real need is for 500, 000 beds.
Like many large, older nursing homes, the facility is plagued with empty beds.
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