Withybush: 'No plan B' to losing A&E, says chief exec

There is "no plan B" for the reconfiguration of hospital services in west Wales, a health board chief executive has said.

Steve Moore, of Hywel Dda University Health Board, spoke as the Senedd debated calls for Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest to keep its A&E.

Campaigners fear downgrading it and Carmarthen's Glangwili Hospital would cost lives.

Mr Moore said it was the only way the health board can maintain services.

The health board wants to build a new urgent and planned care hospital somewhere between Narberth and St Clears, with five sites currently in the running.

It has submitted a business case to the Welsh government for £1.3bn in investment.

Both Withybush and Glangwili will be retained as community hospitals and will have minor injury units, with community health facilities also being strengthened under the health board plans.

But they would both lose their accident and emergency departments.

It is hoped the new hospital will be built by the end of 2029, if the Welsh government agrees to fund it. No changes will be made until the hospital is completed.

More than 10,000 people have signed an online Senedd petition calling for consultant-led A&E services to be retained at Withybush on a 24/7 basis.

The number of signatures triggered a Welsh parliamentary debate on Wednesday afternoon, in which Health Minister Eluned Morgan insisted the health board's proposals were intended to improve standards of care.

Moira Jenkins, from the Save Withybush Campaign, said she wanted to retain 24 hr consultant-led care at the Haverfordwest hospital.

She said: "There are lives going to be lost, there's no other way of putting it.

"I know from my own experience, three years ago, if we did not have Withybush A&E three years ago I wouldn't be here standing here now and fighting for this services.

"I developed sepsis and I was treated within 15 minutes of arrival. If I had to go to Glangwili, I wouldn't be here."

She insisted campaigners wanted to work with Hywel Dda to secure the future of Withybush.

"Most health boards have winter pressures. Here in Pembrokeshire we have summer pressures because of the influx of tourists. Travel times to Glangwili are horrendous."

"If there was a robust recruitment drive with attractive relocation packages once that uncertainty is taken away, I think the people of Pembrokeshire and Hywel Dda would benefit. "

Steve Moore, the Chief Executive of Hywel Dda, told BBC Wales "that there is no plan B" if the Welsh government did not agree to fund the new hospital.

"We've been really clear, all the way along, that there is no plan B for us," he said. "We looked at every option.

"This is the only way we can sustainably maintain the services in west Wales for the population, so we're being clear with Welsh government, there isn't another option."

He added: "We understand people's concerns. Things are very fragile and we are stretched too thinly over across too many staff.

"Building a new hospital as well as having a community model, that's there in your community, will be the best way to ensure the safest care for people going forward."

In Wednesday' Senedd debate, Conservative Preseli Pembrokeshire MS Paul Davies said that whilst people in his area "accept that we already have to travel further afield for specialist treatment" he complained that "forcing us to travel further afield for life saving treatment and emergency services is totally unacceptable and could put lives at risk".

"By the health board's own admission Pembrokeshire desperately needs upgrades to its transport infrastructure, and that means that people living in areas like St Davids or Fishguard, for example, will take much more than an hour to reach any facilities," he said.

Plaid Cymru Mid and West Wales MS Cefin Campbell said there had been a "chronic lack of capital investment" in the west Wales health board compared to other health boards in Wales.

He said it was "vital that the health board and the Welsh government pay careful attention to the genuine concerns expressed by residents of Pembrokeshire".

Mr Campbell called for "decisive action to ensure that access to emergency services, and residents right to access these services, isn't undermined by any proposed reforms to the area's health system".

Eluned Morgan emphasised that there was a "long way to go" before a decision was taken on the health board's plans.

But she said Hywel Dda was "clear that duplication of services across its sites leads to fragility" and the plans were "designed by clinicians specifically to ensure proposals are safe for patients".

"Multiple sites cannot sustain the necessary expertise, nor the scale needed to provide optimum 24/7 care," she said.

"As someone who's based in St Davids with a 90-year-old mother, I know that I would rather travel an extra few miles to see an expert quicker than spending hours on end in A&E as is currently the case."

Ms Morgan said patients were currently "waiting longer than they would wish to because it's difficult to recruit to the Withybush Hospital".

"For the large number of people in west Wales who are awaiting surgery, the ability to separate emergency cases from planned care would be a positive step forward," she said.

The health board is expected to discuss the five possible sites for the new hospital at its board meeting in August.