Call for hospital downgrade to be abandoned

Health chiefs have been urged to withdraw plans to downgrade Llanidloes Hospital as part of county-wide changes.

The Powys Teaching Health Board wants to downgrade Llanidloes Hospital while moving some services to others in the county, including Newtown.

Steve Witherden MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, has written to the Powys Teaching Health Board regarding a proposal to downgrade Llanidloes War Memorial Hospital following correspondence with constituents. 

After attending and speaking at a public consultation meeting in Llanidloes in August, he recently submitted a collective response to PTHB opposing the plans to temporarily downgrade the town’s hospital, requesting the proposal be withdrawn. 

Mr Witherden said: “I cannot support the proposal and on behalf of my constituents, have respectfully requested that it is withdrawn. 

“I believe the changes are significant and should be classified as such. I would like to see the consultation process aborted and re-run, at the very least. 

“At the meeting, I quoted the proverb – ‘there is nothing so permanent as a temporary solution’. This sums up the fear my constituents feel that any change proposed on a temporary basis would only consolidate and legitimise a permanent change.  

“A temporary six-month trial would fail to paint an accurate picture of what the proposed changes would mean for the hospital year-round, with healthcare provision starkly different in the winter compared with the summer. 

“PTHB are arguing that the current model for delivering community hospital in-patient services across Powys is inefficient. This may be true, but we cannot change our geography. I will make no apology for robustly fighting for my constituents to access healthcare near to where they reside. 

“The elephant in the room here is the reliance on private sector agency staff. In the education sector, the privatisation of supply teaching in Wales reduced pay and lessened pension contributions with no saving to the public purse, making the job less desirable and creating large shortages. 

“The Welsh Government took significant strides to address this last autumn by creating the National Supply Pool for Wales. I am hugely supportive of creating a health sector equivalent for bank staff, which would go a long way in tackling shortages.”