Powys urged to unite to save health services

Powys county councillors will be asked to join the fight to save hospital beds and other services in the county.

At a county council meeting next Thursday (October 8), councillors will be asked to back a five-point motion that stresses the need to improve and not cut health services.

This is a response to Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) consultation into options that could see beds cut in the future, as well as the loss of the X-Ray facility and Minto Injuries Unit in Welshpool.

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

Cllr Jones will ask councillors to “note with grave concern the proposals being brought before PTHB on September 16 as part of the Better Together Programme”.

Cllr Jones said: “Powys does not have too many hospital beds; Powys has too many people travelling too far to access healthcare.

“At a time when the county is already facing significant healthcare challenges, the answer cannot be fewer beds, fewer local services and greater reliance on services that do not yet exist.

“The people of Powys deserve investment, not downgrading. Access, not distance, certainty, not risk.”

Cllr Jones continued: “Powys residents are tired of travelling further, waiting longer and seeing essential services moved away from their communities. They are tired of seeing financial pressures placed ahead of patient care and of being asked to accept less than communities elsewhere in Wales.

“This council therefore sends a clear message: protect our community hospitals, protect our hospitals and hospital beds, and stop the continued erosion of healthcare services in Powys.

“Powys residents must not be treated as second-class citizens.”

The motion, which will be seconded by Cllr Graham Breeze (Powys Independents – Welshpool Llanerchyddol), will ask councillors to: “Formally oppose any reduction in community hospital beds within Powys, closure, downgrading, reduction or loss of service at any Powys community hospital or concentration of inpatient care into only two or three locations across the county.

“Call upon PTHB to withdraw any proposal that would result in a reduction in community hospital bed capacity.

“Reject any proposal that removes existing beds before equivalent replacement services have been fully established, fully staffed, fully funded, and independently demonstrated to be successful.

“Write immediately to the PTHB chairman and chief executive, the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, all Powys Members of the Senedd and all Powys Members of Parliament, setting out the council’s opposition to any reduction in community hospital beds or services.

“Reaffirm that healthcare in Powys must be accessible, safe, sustainable and delivered as close to home as possible.”

The PTHB Better Together consultation is set to start on Monday and is expected to run until January 10. 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.