PLAID Cymru’s under-fire AM for Dwyfor Meirionnydd Dafydd Elis-Thomas (pictured) has welcomed news that plans for Blaenau Ffestiniog’s new community health centre are coming to fruition.

However, local residents and actions groups have once again been left feeling ‘voiceless’ as work continues around them despite various protestations.

Lord Elis-Thomas has been in contact with the health minister to seek clarification when the development of the Blaenau Ffestiniog Health Centre will start.

According to Lord Elis-Thomas, the health minister has stated: “I announced funding of £3.9m for the development on 16 December. 

“The current indicative timetable for the new Primary Care Resource Centre in Blaenau Ffestiniog is that it will open in early 2017.  The public events held by the Mid Wales Health Collaborative will not impact on the development of this centre.”

In response, Lord Elis-Thomas AM said: “This statement clearly sets the situation with the plans for the development of improved integrated health and social care services in the area. 

“This investment will include improved GP services in Blaenau Ffestiniog and will bring together primary care, community care, social services and voluntary care all under one roof. 

“The constituents of Blaenau and the area will have a range of community based facilities including palliative care, new telemedicine facilities, paediatric services and child and adult mental health. 

“I very much welcome these new and improved services.”

“After a long process and following numerous public consultations I now eagerly await the opening of the Blaenau Ffestiniog Health Centre. 

“This will bringing new primary care services and enhanced resources closer to local people and the community.”

However the comments made by Lord Elis-Thomas and the health minister have left a bitter taste in the mouth of the chair of the Ffestiniog Memorial Hospital Defence Committee, Geraint Vaughan Jones.

In a scathing attack, Mr Jones said: “Rather than being a willing spokesman, yet again, for BCUHB’s disingenuous claims and propaganda, why can’t our AM do a bit of his own research for a change and discover what the situation really is like in the Welsh Uplands, and what services were available here up to three years ago before the Betsi made such a hash of things?

“Dafydd Elis-Thomas welcomes what he naïvely calls ‘the outcome of numerous public consultations’, whilst in the same breath quoting the health minister saying ‘the public events held by the Mid Wales Health Collaborative will not impact on the development of this centre’.

“How disingenuous can these people be?

“Only 24 hours before this Plaid Cymru press release, the Collaborative was holding its very first public consultation sessions in Blaenau Ffestiniog!

“Was it because of his inside knowledge that our AM never bothered to show his face at those sessions, to listen to the very real concerns of his constituents?”

Reacting to the news, Ffion Johnstone, area director at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board added: “The new integrated health and social care centre ‘Canolfan Goffa Ffestiniog’ will bring more primary and community services closer to people’s homes in modern, fit for purpose accommodation.

“As well as being a focal point for wellbeing information, support and advice, the centre will also house new education and training facilities with a view to becoming a centre of excellence in rural healthcare in the future.”