Parking and public transport links for new health facilities at Aberaeron and Cardigan are vital to help patients, members of a patient watchdog have said.

With new integrated care centres due to open before the end of the year in both Aberaeron and Cardigan, members of the Ceredigion committee of the Hywel Dda Community Health Council said they were keen to ensure that plans were in place to ensure patients could access the centres either by public transport or by being able to park at the sites.

Work is still ongoing on renovating the former Ceredigion County Council office that will house the Aberaeron centre, with building work also taking place on the new-build Cardigan centre.

Ceredigion county director Peter Skitt said work on both centres was on scheduled with the Aberaeron centre expected to open on 21 October and the Cardigan centre due to open before Christmas.

Cllr Lyndon Lloyd said while the new Cardigan facility was being welcomed in the area, there were concerns over the level of parking available.

He said: “It does strike people, is there enough parking for patients, especially disabled people?”

Mr Skitt said the health board had considered the number of people expected to be in the facility at any point and that there was actually more parking spaces than had been estimated.

But he said there would also be a bus service to the facility, although he was still in talks with bus operators to ensure that services matched the times the centre was open.

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