A consultation on a shake-up of the health service in mid and west Wales that includes the mooted downgrading of stroke services at Bronglais Hospital have been signed off by Hywel Dda Health Board despite protests.

A Hywel Dda University Health Board meeting on Thursday, 29 May voted to sign off on beginning a consultation on a new Clinical Services Plan.

The plan includes turning Bronglais’ stroke unit into a ‘Treat and Transfer’ Unit, a move that has been greeted with uproar by local politicians and residents and led to the formation of a residents’ group in a bid to put pressure on the health board to retain services at the Aberystwyth hospital.

The plan has caused great concern, with a group of Aberystwyth residents forming the Protect Bronglais Services (PBS) campaign group in a bid to secure services at the hospital.

Following the meeting where the consultation process was given the green light, Ceredigion MS Elin Jones called on the “community to work together to reject the plans.”

Ms Jones said she was “totally against the treat and transfer proposal for stroke services at Bronglais” and has made her views known to the Health Board “on numerous occasions over the past few months and also to Welsh Government Ministers.”

“I have also visited the stroke unit where I discussed our current provision with staff and patients, and I spoke at a public meeting in Aberystwyth,” she said.

“This model of care would make it virtually impossible for relatives to visit patients daily or frequently, and we know how important these visits are to aid recovery from stroke.

“We cannot accept this offer of a treat and transfer model, and I’m working with everyone in the local community in the hope that the Health Board will realise that this model is unacceptable.

“I urge everyone to respond to the public consultation when it opens, so that we can try to secure the current high-quality services we have in Bronglais, and that the Health Board receives a very clear ‘No’ from the people of Ceredigion.”

The plan which forms the consultation will also see changes across Hywel Dda hospitals on critical care response; Urgent and Emergency Paediatrics; Planned Care (Dermatology, Elective Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, and Urology); Emergency General Surgery; Professions and Health Science Diagnostics (Endoscopy and Radiology) and Primary Care and Community.

Hywel Dda Medical Director Mr Mark Henwood said: “No decisions have been made on the options presented, and there are currently no preferred solutions.

“The changes we are looking to make are to ensure we have safe, high-quality services and affordable healthcare in the future, and have at their heart the best interests of the people of west Wales and their patient experience.”

The consultation will run from 12 weeks from 2 June to 31 August.

The Health Board said it “will consider what they have heard in consultation, as well as supporting evidence and data.”

The results of the consultation are due to be discussed at the Health Board meeting in November.