Wales Air Ambulance: Welshpool and Caernarfon bases to close

Two Wales Air Ambulance bases are set to close in Welshpool and Caernarfon, replaced by a new base in north Wales.

Recommendations by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) to move services were approved by the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (JCC) on Tuesday.

The exact location of the base will be decided later, but will be in central north Wales, alongside the A55.

The new service is expected to start in 2026.

A review of the service recommended closing the bases at Welshpool and Caernarfon and moving the helicopters and rapid response road vehicles to a new site in north Wales near the A55.

It found that this would mean about 140 more emergency calls could be answered each year and more use would be made of the specialist doctors based in Welshpool and Caernarfon.

But there has been strong opposition to the proposals, particularly in Powys where campaigners say that patients in remote and rural areas will lose out.

In a recent public engagement process, 66% of responses came from Powys and a petition opposing the changes attracted more than 30,000 signatures.

At the meeting on Tuesday, the JCC approved four recommendations by a majority decision, with Powys Teaching Health Board indicating that it was not able to support them.

The recommendations included providing an additional bespoke road-based service for remote and rural areas.

Hayley Thomas, chief executive of Powys Teaching Health Board, said the base changes should not go ahead if the new road-based service was not felt to be adequate.

Chief ambulance services commissioner Stephen Harrhy, who led the review, said no bases would close until the new bespoke service was in place.