Health plans condemned by county councillors

Powys councillors have set aside their political differences to unanimously condemn potential moves to cut hospital beds and other health services in the county, including making Newtown hospital a local hub.

At a Powys County Council meeting, councillors were asked to back a five-point motion that stresses the need to improve and not cut health services.

This is a response to the Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) consultation, which started on Monday, October 5.

The motion was put before councillors by the council’s anti-poverty champion and long-time healthcare campaigner Cllr Joy Jones (Powys Independents – Newtown East).

Cllr Jones said: “Home-based care puts huge pressure on carers, on families and on people who simply can’t manage alone, and when the support is not there, it is the vulnerable who pay a price.

“People are not reassured, they feel let down again, they have been managing on the bare minimum for years and now they are being asked to accept next to nothing.”

Cllr Graham Breeze (Powys Independents – Welshpool Llanerchyddol), who seconded the proposal, said: “Our residents already travel some of the longest distances in Wales to access health services, thousands are treated outside the county every year, families already spend hours on the road to visit loved ones.

“Yet the answer being proposed seems to be fewer beds, fewer local services and more travelling.

“That is not progress but a devastating step back into the dark ages for health care in local communities.

“Existing services should not be removed until alternatives are firmly established, fully staffed and proved to work.”

Cllr Breeze said that a recent private meeting between councillors and PTHB had been a “total sham”.

“Rehearsed propaganda and a clear warning that PTHB is not prepared to listen or meet face to face in public meetings,” said Cllr Breeze, as he urged all councillors to support the motion.

Cabinet member for adult social care Cllr Pete Roberts (Liberal Democrat – Llandrindod South) said there were “emerging concerns” about how the proposal could impact the council and that work on a formal consultation response was taking place.

Cllr Roberts raised concerns about removing beds if the home care model proposed by PTHB did not have the staff to do the work.

He believed there would be an expectation for council social care staff to “sweep in and pick up the pieces”.

Cllr Roberts said: “We’re already seeing some of our domiciliary care providers relying on staff commuting from the West Midlands, where will these new staff be coming from and who picks up the bill?”

He believed that the lack of “step-down beds” in Powys could see residents placed in hospital in “Cheshire or Worcestershire” to continue their recuperation.

“The proposals before us present a clear and present danger to the delivery of adult social care services, this is not good enough for Powys residents,” said Cllr Roberts.

Cabinet member for legal and regulatory services Richard Church (Liberal Democrat – Welshpool Council) said: “This issue is about more than beds; we’re also talking about the loss of minor injury units and X-ray services in most of our hospitals.

“That is a problem felt acutely with Welshpool in the north and a problem we share with Ystradgynlais at the other end of the county.”

He believed residents in both towns would travel to accident and emergency departments at hospitals in Shrewsbury and Swansea for treatment rather than urgent care centres at hospitals in Newtown and Brecon.

Cllr Church said: “I am very interested in local history. I found by accident a press article from 1874 when they were arguing in favour of building a hospital in Welshpool, because people were having to go by horse and cart to Shrewsbury or Newtown.

“150 years later we’re still having the same arguments.”

Deputy council leader Cllr Matthew Dorrance (Labour – Brecon West) said: “The NHS is there to support us all in our time of need, that contract is in danger of being broken under these proposals.

“The late great Aneurin Bevan said that the NHS would last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.

“Let’s keep the faith and fight for it.”

Conservative group leader Cllr Aled Davies (Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llansilin) said: “I can’t see what they are proposing is a solution at this moment in time, they must take communities along with them, and at the moment they are failing to do that.”

Reform UK’s Cllr Karl Lewis (Llandinam and Dolfor) asked for the motion to be strengthened by calling on the Welsh Government’s health secretary, Plaid Cymru’s Mabon ap Gwynfor, to intervene.

Cllrs Jones and Breeze agreed to add this to the motion.

Eventually, a vote took place and all 53 councillors at the meeting voted to support the motion.

The PTHB Better Together consultation started on Monday, October 5, and is expected to run until January 10, 2027.

It will include 13 drop-in events across Powys.

Their proposals are:

Centralise inpatient bed provision across Brecon, Llandrindod Wells and Newtown hospitals.
Or cut inpatient beds cut further with provision at Brecon and Newtown hospitals.
Concentrate urgent care by establishing bigger centres in Brecon and Newtown – this would see minor injury units at Llandrindod Wells, Welshpool and Ystradgynlais close.
The urgent care centres at Brecon and Newtown would also have a “minor illness and injury unit” at Llandrindod Wells.
The last option is to centralise mental health services at Bronllys hospital.

A decision following the consultation is expected in the spring of 2027.