Madam,

We read about the great changes that are happening with our “National Health Service”.

We have read about three such examples in the Cambrian News, including the selling of Aberaeron’s Cottage Hospital because it is “Deemed not fit for purpose”.

The second report says “Staff criticise bed losses as hospital is at breaking point’. Staff are complaining that the loss of beds will cause more grief to both staff and patients.

This is because management has come up with a plan with no thought of its consequences - to move the new Chemo Unit from Leri Ward to Y Banwy with the loss of beds. The bed crisis carries on in Bronglais Hospital because of management actions.

The real answer is to bring back our cottage hospitals, so patients who are in need of a Care Plan, recovering from operations or who just feel poorly, are able to recover in a secure bed with little expense and near to their homes and family.

With new plans involving accountants, the offshoot is that families of patients are carrying a greater burden in care for the elderly.

Added to the strain is the travelling to and from hospitals, plus the difficulty in finding a parking space. George Holloway’s letter asks how Joe Teape, Hywel Dda’s director of operations, is going to enact his New model for Care for dementia patients?

Mr Holloway cannot get an answer as to how things will work because that is a secret it seems to all of us, including the management.

There is, however, a simple answer that is both cost-effective and works for both staff and patients and that is to re-open all the cottage hospitals that management have closed and sold off in the past few decades. Hywel Dda wish to sell off the land and hospital in Aberaeron and other Cottage Hospitals, and succeed in doing so by stating “they are not fit for purpose”.

Yours etc, Mohammad Tahla, Llanarth.

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