A CARDIGAN councillor has hit out at health chiefs after it emerged they have formally approved plans for Cardigan Health Centre to close its list to new patients until next February.

Practice managers had hoped they would be able to reopen their list to new patients on 1 August, but Hywel Dda University Health Board has revealed that “due to unforeseen circumstances” this will not now be happening.

The news follows hard on the heels of last month’s disclosure that a serious shortage of rural GPs had plunged the future of Cardigan’s Ashleigh Surgery into doubt.

This followed the impending loss of two of its three GPs from a practice which has 4,020 patients.

And now Cllr John Adams-Lewis has expressed grave concern, saying that the closure of Cardigan’s Health Centre list will “inevitably” increase anxiety and uncertainty among residents of the town.

“This is very, very disappointing for the people of Cardigan,” he told the Cambrian News. “If they can’t register with either of these two health centres then where can they register?

“We still don’t know what’s happening with Cardigan’s so-called integrated health centre and planning permission for the Bath-house site was granted way back in 2008.”

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