Madam,

We have read with concern some inaccurate comments on social media recently in response to an online petition which calls for ‘the return of 24-hour paediatrics to Bronglais General Hospital’.

To be absolutely clear, Bronglais Hospital continues to have 24-hour, seven-day-a-week consultant-led inpatient paediatric services. The petition makes reference to Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU/or neonatal) services at Bronglais Hospital and implies that babies from the Ceredigion area are transferred elsewhere in Wales as a direct conse-quence of changes to services in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire in 2014. This is not the case.

Whilst Bronglais Hospital has a joint consultant and midwife-led maternity unit, it does not have a SCBU and has never been a formal receiving hospital for special care babies.

Clinical protocols are in place to minimise the potential for premature births at the hospital. In the event of a premature birth, facilities are available to stabilise and transfer babies either for special care at the SCBU in Carmarthen.

Only babies requiring tertiary, specialist neonatal care are transferred to units in Swansea, Cardiff or Newport, as usual.

These levels of neonatal services have never been available at any of the hospitals across the Hywel Dda University Health Board area.

Yours etc

Dr Philip Kloer

Medical director

Hywel Dda University Health Board