Fury over plans to strip beds from Machynlleth and Llanidloes hospitals

Politicians and campaign groups have hit back at Powys health board plans to strip all inpatient beds away from Machynlleth and Llanidloes hospitals.

On Thursday, 10 September, the Cambrian News reported that Powys Teaching Health Board will discuss plans at its meeting on 16 September to launch a consultation on its ‘Better Together’ programme.

Papers from the meeting show the health board proposes reducing inpatient beds from the current 146 across eight community hospitals to as little as 60 across three or two sites in Brecon, Llandrindod Wells and Newtown.

Under both options presented, inpatient beds would be removed from both Llanidloes and Machynlleth hospitals

Plaid Cymru Gwynedd Maldwyn MS Elwyn Vaughan, who met with campaigners in Machynlleth, said the move would move services further away from residents in Machynlleth and Llanidloes.

“I fail to see how in Powys… having up to 100 fewer community beds can resolve any issues,” he said.

“It is a step in the wrong direction and one to which we are totally opposed.

“We will be working hard with communities to ensure a positive alternative proposal is developed.”

The Protect Bronglais Services group also weighed in on the plans, with Chair Lisa Francis saying it is “devastating news for people living in the western part of Powys and will also have a knock-on effect for Bronglais as the only District General Hospital in Mid Wales.”

“A lack of availability of step-down care at these community hospitals will likely result in delayed discharge of care at Bronglais just as it has with the closure of Dyfi Ward at Tywyn Hospital.,” she said.

“Powys Teaching Health Board and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board do not understand that many residents living in Mid Wales are customers of three different health boards including Hywel Dda UHB yet we use only one DGH.

“There is simply no joined-up thinking between these health boards at all who appear to operate in isolation.

“I’ve no doubt that this decision is about rationalisation and it will affect our elderly, frail and vulnerable the most.

“It feels particularly personal to me as like many of us, I’ve a number of elderly family who received the most amazing care at Machynlleth which enabled them to be discharged from Bronglais more quickly and then from Machynlleth, get home and resume their independence.

“This is an important service and the idea that there there is sufficient care within Powys and Southern Meirionnydd for people to be managed within their own homes is for the birds. What planet are these decision makers living on?

“Welsh Government needs to intervene here or at least tell us why they won’t.

“This is why PBS is holding a Mid Wales Health Summit on the 17 October in Aberystwyth.

“The Welsh Government is legally responsible for the NHS in Wales.

“The time for buck-passing is over.

“The people of Mid Wales deserve straight answers.”

The Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrats have warned that investment in Newtown must not be used as an excuse to dismantle hospital services in surrounding towns, arguing that a rural healthcare system needs a strong network of community facilities rather than expecting patients and their families to travel ever greater distances for care.

They have vowed to mount a major campaign across Montgomeryshire against the loss of local services and are calling on the Plaid Cymru Welsh Government to intervene before the plans progress any further.

Llanidloes Councillors Glyn Preston and Fleur Frantz-Morgans said: “We are absolutely furious that after everything the people of Llanidloes have said and done to defend our hospital, we are now being presented with options where every single road leads to the same place: the loss of our beds.

“Five hundred people came to our public meeting in Llanidloes.

“That should tell the Health Board everything it needs to know about what this hospital means to our community.

“People in Llanidloes will feel angry, betrayed and completely ignored. But we are not giving up. If the Health Board thinks our community is simply going to accept the hollowing out of our hospital, they have seriously underestimated us.”