Determined residents vow to fight hospital plan 'until end'
LLANELLI residents have vowed to fight proposals to shake-up hospital services until the end.
And Hywel Dda Health Board members were warned they would "have blood on their hands" if they pushed through the proposal to replace Prince Philip Hospital's A&E department with a nurse-led local accident centre for minor injuries and illnesses and a medical admissions unit.
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But chief executive Trevor Purt described the changes as "absolutely minimal".
More than 300 people packed into a public meeting for a heated debate over the future of hospital services on Tuesday night.
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Residents poured into Parc y Scarlets, where they grilled members of Hywel Dda Health Board for three hours, with many calling for the reinstatement of full emergency services at the hospital, which have been removed over seven years.
Marcus Rose said: "We will fight this until the end. I think it is absurd that you're centralising everything 24 miles away.
"My personal grudge is that I'm 73 years old, and all my life I've been able to go to a hospital which could do anything apart from the very serious.
"Now what you have done is taken my A&E to Carmarthen, which is 24 miles from my home."
Another resident said: "If you close A&E there will be lives lost and there will be blood on your hands."
But the board said Llanelli residents are in a "unique" situation being placed between two hospitals.
Mr Purt said: "Neither Withybush nor Bronglais have other hospitals in their vicinity. Llanelli is served by two other hospitals — Morriston and Glangwili."
He added services that currently exist at the hospital will be the same services that will exist after the changes.
He said: "What we have currently is not an A&E. The name over the door is misleading.
"The services we currently provide will continue, and in some respects will be enhanced in the direct access for medical emergencies.
"The issue around people dying in ambulances is misleading because there will be no change to the way services are accessed."
alana.lewis@swwmedia.co.uk
Comments
by Einon
Friday, September 07 2012, 9:45AM
“@Neathboy 234
We have an ageing population in Wales because successive decades of Unionist mismanagement means that many of the finest of our youth are moving away/emigrating to seek work, and they are being replaced by ageing retirees from other parts of the UK.
As to the comment about "falling revenue" - for who? Not for the bankers, who have had millions of pounds of our taxpayers money, courtesy of successive Labour/Tory governments. Or the politicians for that matter - they're talking about spending £3 BILLION POUNDS now to renovate Westminster.
The money is there - it's the incompetence and mismanagement of the Unionists that is the problem.”
by Neathboy234
Friday, September 07 2012, 9:06AM
“sochat what would U have happen, everything to remain exactly the same at a time of falling revenue compounded with an aging population. We're only lucky in the UK that lots of fit young taxpaying men are moving here from E Europe, otherwise we'd have an even older/poorer population”
by sochat
Friday, September 07 2012, 6:19AM
“What a bunch of hypocrites you are,because this is the policy of the Welsh liebor government the phrase "cuts" is out and the phrase change is in.”
by Neathboy234
Thursday, September 06 2012, 11:10PM
“Some people just don't like change, best ignored in my opinion. With an aging population and falling GDP health reorganization is vital”
by Einon
Thursday, September 06 2012, 11:00PM
“"What we have currently is not an A&E. The name over the door is misleading."
It's the time-honored tactic of the bureaucrat and the politician - chip away a little here, a little there over a period of years, and then turn around and tell us it's not worth saving. But at the end of the day people in Llanelli have voted Labour and got what they asked for - downgrades and centralisation - more fool them!”
by Dan01
Thursday, September 06 2012, 5:16PM
“I used to live and work in Llanelli many years ago. What an insular narrow minded folk they were and are. The only thing they are positive about is their commitment to being negative. They are always flat out fighting to 'keep' everything, the good , the bad and the ugly. I am nonetheless still a Scarlets supporter, - but the Stradey Nine and their supporters did test my resolve to continue with my lifelong association with the club.”