Madam,

With the imminent closure of Teifi Surgery at Llandysul on 31 January, followed on 28 February, by a similar fate for the very busy Ashleigh Surgery in Cardigan, around 10,000 patients, many of them elderly, are being allocated to other doctors’ surgeries in the south Ceredigion/north Pembrokeshire/west Carmarthenshire area. This, in itself, is going to cause confusion, chaos and delays.

However, on top of this, in late 2019, the health centre in Cardigan is relocating to a new “integrated care centre” at a new building at Bathhouse, which is apparently being termed a “hospital” even though it will have no beds.

This relocation will inevitably cause even more confusion and disruption during the “bedding-in” period of the new unit during 2019/2020.

Confused patients galore will be knocking on strange doors to be examined by strangers. This could be a recipe for chaos, long delays at best.

Therefore, the people within a several-mile radius of Cardigan will be even more dependent on our excellent ambulance service and our local paramedics.

Experienced paramedics will be vital over the next few years, especially those with an intimate knowledge of the convoluted geography of west Wales.

Its tortuous back-roads and multi-syllabic Welsh place names (often badly signposted) must be a constant conundrum to many of the English folk in the area, whether they be new residents or on holiday. I am 71, Welsh-speaking and have lived here all my life, but I can still get well and truly lost in west Wales.

Therefore, an experienced, local, Welsh-speaking paramedic is worth his or her weight in gold, in a vital life-saving business where local knowledge and speed of thought and action are paramount.

The paramedics are the unsung heroes of west Wales. We cannot afford to lose any of them.

Please support them through thick and thin.

Yours etc,

Lyn James Jenkins, Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park, Gwbert, Cardigan.

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