Health chiefs have praised the ‘remarkable efforts’ of local contractors and communities in turning leisure centres and schools into temporary hospitals to fight coronavirus.

Hywel Dda University Health Board chief executive Steve Moore has paid tribute to the “remarkable efforts” of the board’s partners, contractors, local communities, staff and volunteers as they undergo the formal handover of a number of temporary field hospitals to help in the fight against Covid-19. 

Seven hospitals across the Hywel Dda area have been created by converting council leisure centres, sport and recreational facilities and a school, three of which are in Ceredigion.

The Ceredigion sites will be in Cardigan Leisure Centre (Ysbyty Enfys Aberteifi) and Plascrug Leisure Centre and Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig in Aberystwyth (Ysbyty Enfys Aberystwyth).

All of the sites will be handed over from the respective contractors to the health board by Monday, 27 April.

Mr Moore said: “The efforts that our colleagues and partners in local authorities, private businesses including Bluestone and Parc y Scarlets, contractors and our own staff have made is nothing short of remarkable and I want to personally extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to all for coming together and making this happen in the midst of a very serious global pandemic.

“As a health board we are ready for the challenges ahead and we want our communities to be assured that we have done everything we possibly can to get to this point based on national planning and modelling assumptions.

“What we have witnessed in other countries all over the world is that it is currently very hard to predict how this virus will behave and in Wales we continue to take learning from other parts of the country that have already experienced huge demand on their services, particularly in the south, and will adapt and change our plans accordingly based on the needs of our population.

“We’re never going to know exactly how this pandemic will develop locally until we get to each stage and we are going to need to be as flexible as possible about how we use these facilities to care for our population.

"It’s important that we draw on all of the resources that we have to care for people across the whole healthcare system, and these field hospitals are a fantastic resource for us to be able to draw on.

“I would like to thank everyone who has been involved with these projects for their outstanding effort and commitment.”