Consultation over big South Wales health service shake-up due to start tomorrow
CONSULTATION over the biggest shake-up of health services in South Wales for decades is due to start today.
THE five health boards providing care for people in South Wales and South Powys have been asked to launch a formal public consultation about the future of four hospital services.
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board members agreed to the move at a special board meeting on Wednesday.
Aneurin Bevan, Cardiff and Vale, Cwm Taf and Powys health boards also held meetings during which they were asked to agree an eight-week consultation about the future of consultant-led maternity and neonatal care, inpatient children’s services and emergency medicine (A&E).
Frontline doctors, nurses, midwives, therapists and paramedics have been working together over the last 18 months to look at the challenges facing these services – including problems recruiting sufficient doctors - and ideas for their future to ensure they meet standards and are clinically safe and sustainable.
This is called the South Wales Programme – a partnership of the five health boards and the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.
These ideas, including where they could be based, were shared with the public during a three-month engagement last year.
This revealed widespread understanding about why these services can no longer be provided in all hospitals and significant support for the ideas to concentrate them in four or five hospitals.
Dr Graham Shortland, medical director of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: “We cannot continue to provide consultant-led maternity and neonatal care, inpatient children’s services and emergency medicine (A&E) for the most seriously-injured and sickest patients in all hospitals – we are not providing the highest quality care for patients all the time and our doctors are spread too thinly.
“Concentrating these services in fewer hospitals in South Wales will mean that patients with life-threatening injuries and illnesses will get faster access to senior clinicians when they come to hospital, which will mean they get faster treatment and get better more quickly.
“The changes will help improve the standard of care we are able to give to all patients when they come to hospital in the future because patients will be getting care from the most appropriate clinician for their needs.”
There are four options being proposed, all of which see these services being provided at Morriston Hospital, University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, and the Specialist and Critical Care Centre due to be built near Cwmbran.
The favoured option would see the services also provided at Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend and Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.
The South Wales Programme says each option has been assessed against a wide range of factors, including their impact on travel times, especially for people living in the most deprived communities; the number of doctors needed; the impact on the Welsh Ambulance Service, and; a high-level assessment of how much they will cost.
Finance is an important factor but the South Wales Programme is said not to be about saving money or cutting costs – but about improving care for patients and achieving clinical standards.
Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of Aneurin Bevan Health Board and the lead chief executive for the South Wales Programme, said: “Whatever the outcome of the South Wales Programme, all our hospitals have a vital role to play in the future of healthcare for people in South Wales and South Powys.
“No hospitals will be ‘downgraded’ as a result of this process; no A&E departments will be closed – the majority of patients will continue to get their care from their local hospital, exactly as they do now.
“It is only the small number of patients who are seriously injured or ill who will have their care provided at a different hospital. For these patients, travelling a little further – in an emergency ambulance with highly-skilled paramedics – will mean they get better care, which will hopefully increase their chances of surviving their illness or injury.
“If these patients need ongoing care, we are committed to getting them to their local hospital closer to home as soon as clinically appropriate.”
He added: “We look forward to working with community health councils during the consultation period and we would encourage everyone to get involved and let us know what they think of the options for the future of these services.”
The consultation document, the supporting technical documents, the draft equality impact assessment and full details of all the public meetings to support the public consultation will be available on the South Wales Programme website: www.wales.nhs.uk/swp and www.wales.nhs.uk/swp/hafan (Welsh) from tomorrow.
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