Plaid Cymru politicians and Senedd candidates have pledged to save services at Bronglais Hospital in rural Wales by resurrecting a decade-long ambition to turn it into a Hospital of Rural Excellence.

Elin Jones and Mabon ap Gwynfor Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Health Minister have united to jointly pledge that Bronglais becomes a Hospital of Rural Excellence, while calling for major upgrades at the hospital.

The pair said that the hospital has faced “wave after wave of downgrading proposals over the years”, the latest of which is the option to downgrade the Stroke Unit.

Last month, Hywel Dda University Health Board pushed ahead with plans to downgrade the stroke unit at Bronglais hospital despite calls to safeguard full stroke services at Bronglais saw more than 17,000 signed one of the biggest petitions in the Senedd’s 26-year history.

Elin Jones, current MS and lead Senedd candidate for Ceredigion Penfro at May’s elections and a long-time campaigner for Bronglais hospital urged the health board to avoid downgrading the stroke unit in the latest blow to services at the Aberystwyth hospital and says it’s now time to resurrect the ambition of Marcus Longley’s Mid Wales Healthcare Study commissioned for Welsh Government in 2014.

That study and its recommendations for health services in mid Wales followed unsuccessful threats to downgrade Bronglais and centralise its emergency surgery and obstetric services.

Ms Jones said: “We know that Bronglais is a small hospital.

“The numbers through the doors are not as numerous as in larger city hospitals.

“Models of service delivery that are designed for larger population centres are not always applicable to a smaller hospital and need to be designed accordingly.

“Just because a hospital is small though does not mean it cannot be modern and cutting-edge. In fact it needs to be more so, especially in the use of telemedicine.

“There was a momentum to design bespoke rural services for mid Wales as a result of the Marcus Longley review and progress was made for a time.

“However, it seems to have been lost over the Covid period.

“It’s time to go back to the drawing board and for the NHS in Wales, working across individual Local Health Boards in mid Wales, to design Bronglais as a Hospital of Rural Excellence.”

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Shadow Plaid Cymru Health Minister, and candidate for Gwynedd Maldwyn added: “Bronglais is a hospital serving a very large geographic area covering much of Gwynedd, Powys and Ceredigion.

“With the right political direction from the next Welsh Government, we have an opportunity to plan services in Bronglais in such a way that meets the needs of rural Wales.

“Western Australia and Canada have developed models of Rural Health Excellence, and by learning best practice from these places and elsewhere, working cross boundary with other Health Boards, and working with key organisations such as our Royal Colleges, we can develop Bronglais as a centre of rural health excellence, excelling in telemedicine and a workforce plan that answers the needs of rural mid Wales.”