Lives will be lost should plans to close a hospital's A&E department be given the go-ahead, campaigners have warned. Hywel Dda University Health Board has proposed building a new hospital between Narberth and St Clears which will result in the removal of 24-hour consultant-led care at Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest.
Campaigners claim the current hospital needs to stay put as it is situated close to many "dangerous" professions including an oil refinery, gas terminals, ferry ports, firing ranges, extreme sports centres, and farms. They also said many people would have to rely on Pembrokeshire's "poor" infrastructure and public transport links to get to any new site.
However bosses at the health board claim the ageing services in the region need to be updated so the problem isn't passed onto the next generation. It is understood that five possible sites have been selected for the new hospital – one in Narberth, two in Whitland, and two in St Clears. A business case has been submitted to the Welsh Government for £1.3bn in investment.
The plans would result in Withybush Hospital in Pembrokeshire and Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthenshire becoming community hospitals with a focus on "patients who do not need to be in an acute setting but need support". Both hospitals would be run by GPs and would house a minor injuries unit, outpatient clinics, and m idwife-led units. Community health facilities will also be strengthened under the health board proposals.
Ahead of the debate a spokesman for the Save Withybush campaign said: "There seems to be a misconception among the executive of the health board that these proposals are some kind of 'done deal'. They are not. The board will soon learn that Pembrokeshire is prepared to fight them at every level to stop these dangerous proposals and that with our collective voice we will remind them that their job is to provide universal access to health services in line with the original principles of the NHS. Currently they are not doing that – instead operating more like a corporate body which has lost its way."
A petition to save the A&E department garnered 10,000 signatures which meant it was debated in plenary on Wednesday afternoon. The petition states that the public has "lost faith and trust" in the health board and is not acting in the best interests of the people of Pembrokeshire.
Lead petitioner Jacqueline Doig, who was at the Senedd ahead of the debate, said: "Withybush is the only A&E for the entire county of Pembrokeshire which has a population of 125,000 people and upwards of seven million tourists a year. People already have to come as far as St Davids to Haverfordwest so to add another 30 miles on would not be within the so-called 'golden hour' or the resuscitative hour as they tend to call it now. Lives, we believe, will be lost.
"There are only seven ambulances to cover the whole of Pembrokeshire. At times, when there are issues with staff absences, there are less than that. So if you have a stroke, an asthma attack, or a similar medical emergency, if you can't get to where you need to be within an hour, you don't stand a chance."
Jacqueline added that public engagement on the changes since 2018 has been "piecemeal" and "selective" and has not reached out to those most affected by the proposals in the far west of Pembrokeshire. She claimed the proposals were driven by financial reasons and have very little to do with saving people's lives.
She said: "We have no faith that the health board is doing the best for us. Centralisation hasn't worked in urban areas, let alone rural areas where you're miles away from the hospital with bad roads and no public transport. But we have support from some MSs because they know what we're saying is correct – and there's also a risk to the rest of Wales. If this happens in Pembrokeshire other health boards will take the same view. We have no choice but to win."
Shadow health minister Russell George MS said he urged the Welsh Government to stop presiding over the "decimation of rural health services in Wales". He said: "The Withybush saga has been raging for over a decade now and residents across west Wales deserve a swift resolution rather than being kept in limbo like this.
"No matter the excuse doled out by the health board chiefs or Labour ministers the community convincingly reject this each time. Maybe Labour needs a hospital appointment to fix their hearing because residents are either not being heard or are being deliberately ignored."
Maria Battle, the chair of Hywel Dda UHB, said a "bigger and more sustainable" hospital configuration was likely to reduce the "very long waits" people experience to get an ambulance, be admitted to A&E and to see a doctor. She said the health board's 'A Healthier Mid and West Wales' strategy, which is based on the Welsh Government's 'A Healthier Wales' strategy and the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act, will "fundamentally improve the whole system of healthcare in west Wales".
"Currently we have four acute hospitals in some of the oldest healthcare buildings in Wales, parts of which are no longer fit purpose, and we have five community hospitals," she explained. "A consequence of so many acute hospitals is rotas that are much less attractive to clinicians compared to those offered by other health boards in Wales and a lack of critical mass to provide the experience that clinicians seek to develop their careers.
"This makes it very difficult for us recruit. At any one time we have between 780 and 900 vacancies for nurses and doctors. We therefore have to use expensive agency staff which risks poorer quality of care, fragile services collapsing, and leads to the endemic financial problems which go back decades. The condition of our estate can mean a relatively poorer patient and staff experience and challenges in the prevention and control of infections."
She added that the new hospital will separate planned and emergency care and reduce the risk of emergency activity affecting planned care through cancelled operations. "The health board does not intend to make changes at Glangwili or Withybush hospitals until the new hospital is built. We think the new urgent and planned care hospital will take until at least the end of 2029 to open. And there will be regular engagement – listening and working with our communities, and our partner organisations, and possibly consultation on parts of the programme."
Ms Battle said the Welsh Ambulance Service is finalising a review of ambulance capacity and has acknowledged the need for a greater degree of paramedic support in west Wales. Analysis undertaken by the NHS trust identified that by placing a new hospital in the identified location 98% of 999 calls would be able to reach the hospital within an hour, 93% of the population would be within one hour of an A&E, by car, and 91% of the population would be within one hour of a planned inpatient care hospital by car.
READ NEXT:
How to check if your polio vaccine is up to date and how you can arrange one
Two health boards fail to balance the books as waiting lists grow
