PLANS to remove services from Lampeter Surgery have caused “huge concern” among local people, health board chiefs have been told.

At a town council meeting, Lampeter health visitor Rhian Davies hit out at a lack of forward planning as well as the loss of the town’s dental clinic.

And she also expressed reservations at the distances young families as well as elderly patients would have to travel to access alternative clinics at Tregaron, Cardigan or Aberaeron.

Describing the loss of Lampeter’s dental clinic following the retirement of its resident dentist, Ms Davies, who has been based in the town for four years, said: “I was almost in tears when the workmen brought the dental chair and equipment out.”

She made her remarks at a meeting called following the “temporary” removal of five clinics - Speech and Language Therapy, Paediatric, Heart Failure, Community Dental and Podiatry since 1 July.

Peter Skitt, Hywel Dda University Board Director for Ceredigion, said the move followed the expiry of a 20-year lease at the surgery plus higher rental charges.

But he pledged that such services would remain in the local area and that Lampeter would ultimately receive its own integrated health centre in the coming years.

Town mayor Cllr Hag Harris questioned the “rationale” behind the move, arguing that Lampeter’s previously effective health hub had been watered down.

“How is this going to improve health services?” he asked. “I see this as an erosion of that hub – services are being scattered and that doesn’t look like good central planning to me.”

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