NHS shakeup: Singleton Hospital maternity services switch among plans for future of health

“Abertawe, sorry to hear that. Our son was born in 2008 so maybe things have changed.

What hasn't changed however is that overall patient care is suffering as more thought is given to the cost of treatment rather than the person needing treatment.
People should always come before money, especially in the NHS. This is the price we pay for the "greed is good" mantra that is everywhere these days.
Denying life prolonging treatment because it's not financially sound is an awful thing.

If these changes can bring better treatment for the majority then I guess it's worth it. The big question is, will they?”

“l00king - this is Swansea, so don't expect any world experts.”

“Just to clarify - a lot of commentators are saying this is about NHS managers, but in fact both our local ABM 'Changing for the Better' (C4B) programme and the 'South Wales Programme' (which is looking at some services across South Wales) are being led by clinical staff - consultants, GPs, nurses, midwives and therapists.

The South Wales Progamme has had 300 clinicians involved and these are their ideas. Our C4B programme has over 340 people involved - around half are clinical staff and the rest are representatives from patient groups, the voluntary sector, local authorities, and carers, and also NHS managers. But in both cases, these change programmes are not being driven by managers!

Also, it's true that the NHS has made a lot of changes in the past. But what we are looking now are major changes – once in a generation changes. Our current system is based on one designed in 1962, which no longer serves changing and growing healthcare demands.

To answer the query about a 'super hospital' being built an Felindre just off junction 46 of the M4 - this was an idea about 7-8 years ago, but it soon became clear that it would be too expensive and not a viable option for a very long time. So instead £10s million have been invested in Morriston hospital as well as £10s millions in other new buildings like new mental health facilities and new primary care resource centres.

To answer Richard Corso - no decisions have been made, and we're not at the public consultation stage yet. This is engagement, which comes before we have firm proposals to consult on. The purpose is to bring people in early on in discussions and get their views. It's a dialogue with the public.

The engagement period lasts until 19th December. Then, after we've had a chance to consider everyone's views on these early ideas, a more detailed set of proposals will be developed for early in 2013. At this stage these proposals will go out to formal consultation.

Can I encourage people to sign up to YouTellUs http://tinyurl.com/c9853xh which is an on-line web facility developed for us by Swansea University where you can leave your feedback.”

“by brochadav
Thursday, September 27 2012, 11:22PM.
"Our son was born in Singleton, it's one of the best maternity units in Wales"

Well I dont know who was looking after you, but i can tell you the care my daughter had there was atrocious, not the facilities, the actual compassionate care of some of the midwives is non existent.”

“A few points;
1 - Where is the evidence that public consultation has been made for these changes?
2 - The road infrastructure to and from Morriston Hospital is already congested. Having a country lane into what will be a major Hospital is a joke.The M4 is regularly congested and adding more will make it worse. If there was any hazmat incident near to various facilities alongside the M4 the whole M4 would be closed.
3- If there was a major influenza or health related incident at Morriston Hospital as Morriston hospital hasn't a good history of cleanliness - where would the hundreds of patients and casualties go?

Isn't it about time that the Welsh and British Governments admitted that the NHS system has failed and that a complete re-organisation of the NHS is required. When it cost the NHS £200 for ink jet cartridges for a printer and the same can be bought at a computer store for £20 then something is very wrong. Those who work in the Health Service have complained that the NHS is no longer focused on it's patents but on how the service is operated - the patients are an unnecessary problem. Patients complain that they are treated like cattle and there's very little compassionate care given to them. NHS bosses brought in management from the hospitality industry as they thought they could run hospitals like a large hotel - well guess what it's failed. The PFI although a good idea - this enabled private finance to build hospitals at a faster rate than the Government finances would allow - has failed because of the basic terms and conditions negotiated means that the overall cost of the Hospitals (almost wrote Hotels) over the contract period of the PFI agreement is paid several times over (a bit like the Seven Bridge- paid for tens of times over). Concentration of health services needs to be balanced over the points mentioned above. In other parts of the UK and in the USA - major hospitals have far better road infrastructure making access easier. Perhaps we can have an Ambulance only lane on the M4!!! Final note - Neath Port Talbot Hospital may as well close for what little services it now offers- it overall design/layout would make a good school - NPT Local Authority take note.”

“Every few years, NHS management decide on a change of direction. It's an ailment they suffer from on a fairly regular basis.
In terms of UK health, nothing much has altered since the NHS was initiated in 1947. The human body hasn't changed. There are not really any new diseases that have developed in the UK since 1947, apart from HIV. We don't have any additional organs that have grown inside us since 1947, but individually, we are living longer, as are people all over the World.
Apart from an increased UK population, which unrestricted immigration doesn't help, why do the NHS keep insisting on this merrygoround of change every few years. Can't they plan for the future. They are proposing changes to take place sometime in the near future, but will that be moreorless the final plan, or will there be another re-organisation in a few years time ?
Will the NHS come up with another plan that perhaps eventually, all illnesses in South Wales will be treated in a new super hospital situated on Cardiff's outskirts and north of the M4 ?
I can see the NHS advertising slogan now, "it's best for everybody !"”

“With constraints on budgets there has to be a balance between savings and what these "ideas" will cost. As Brochadav points out, Singleton Maternity was purpose built. If this department is moved to Morriston, at what cost? If other services are moved from Morriston to make room for the maternity unit, at what cost to Morriston and those hospitals taking the other services in?
Williamwaun and 100king have valid points, after all, they are the customers of the NHS and would be speaking on behalf of a lot of patients and visitors who have to rely on public transport. Comparing Welsh budgets with SE England is a bit skewed, the earnings of those who commute to work obviously earn the cash and the London weighting to salaries so this comparison is not valid as we are talking about Wales not the affluent SE of England.
Building a super hospital will cost, Morriston, not that long ago was a "super hospital", what has changed?
I fear for any "public consultations" as the public don't usually get anything they ask for anyway but the process, however meaningless, must be seen to be done.
Hospital managers are there to provide excellent customer service, surely improving service at current sites will cost less than shuffling the dominoes again? Once the promises on improved services is achieved is the time to consider wholesale changes.”

“It's great to see the debates on these stories in the Evening Post, because we're keen to get everyone involved in shaping future services. There's a great deal more information about this on our website, including a plain-English engagement document which sets out the whys and wherefores.

Please take a look as it will answer many of your queries and hopefully prompt further debate and ideas as well. Find it at http://tinyurl.com/83r2pmv

Some of you may remember that Obstetrics (maternity) was once in Morriston Hospital - the service moved to Singleton Hospital around 1990.

The main reason we are considering moving Obstetrics and the Neonatal unit (for sick newborns) to Morriston now is that other services which are linked to them, like paediatrics and A&E are at Morriston. Expert clinical advice is that these are services which should be co-located on the same site to provide the best service to mums and children.

So Swansea wouldn't be losing a service, it would just be moving location. (If this move goes ahead it won't be for a while, because it would need capital investment.)

Clearly we would also need to look at other services moving out of Morriston into other ABM hospitals, including Singleton Hospital, to make room for any services moving into Morriston.

As I said, please visit our website - we want people to get to grips with the issues and involved in informed debate!”

“The saying dont put all your eggs in to one basket may become a true story, however a lot of people have to travel many miles to get to a hospital. Recently my mother had to be treated at Morristons plastic surgery department, she had superb treatment there, the point I am putting across is that there was another elderly lady in the next bed from Pontypridd.

If you close or move certain services to a larger hospital It can allow the smaller Hospital over time specialise. We need better pediatric hospitals which can hopefully in time stop parents having to travel over the boarder and work the other way that they come to us.

Glangwili hospital has a poor transport service. Singleton and Morriston do not have this issue.
Why build new hospitals when we have a lot of space to build in our larger hospitals to expand.

Moriston resembles a building site with more and more wings being added, so we cant say in all honesty that the welsh NHS are failing. You cant please every body all the time.

Boss hog has a good idea by selling the hospital to the Uni, but is it not now funded as a teaching hospital for specialists doctors, Plaid are moaning the odds, but in the last coalition they did nothing to improve performance and like nothing more to moan the odds on things that dont happen over night.
William wen. the reason that prescription charges were dropped is that they were costing more to process, charging parking fees would cause a lot more expensive to people visiting a patient,that is why they were scrapped and was not your party in coalition at the time to pass this?

I feel that the better Morriston gets it will get more income from other areas that have to send patients hear there is never enough money for every hospital to have a specialist there that will other wise be paid for just sitting around.”

“PS Neathboy, the idea is to weigh up the pro's and cons and if something is better then do it. If a change makes things worse then why do it. Moving A&E from Singleton meant extending the journey from Mumbles/West Swansea by a potentially fatal amount of time. And as we have a rapidly ageing population the extra travelling can be a real problem. If you don't drive getting to Morriston from some parts of Swansea can take all day, even from Llansamlet it can take and hour and 45 minutes by bus (15-20 mins by car), how long from Oystermouth?”