Ceredigion’s MS has hit back at “rose-tinted” comments made by the First Minister Eluned Morgan on the state of healthcare in mid and west Wales and called her silence on proposed downgrades to stroke services at Bronglais Hospital “staggeringly deafening.”

The First Minister - writing to the Cambrian News following the latest in a series of articles and editorials from this newspaper criticising the healthcare situation in the region amid plans to downgrade services at Bronglais hospital and the closure of air ambulance bases – said that mid Wales is “not a healthcare desert”.

But Ceredigion MS Elin Jones disagreed with her assessment, and said the First Minister’s “postbag must be very different to mine.”

“In her article in the Cambrian News, she seemed to give an impression that Ceredigion and mid Wales was an oasis of healthcare,” she said.

“There seemed to be very few challenges for staff or patients within our NHS.

“My postbag paints a different picture.

“The people who write to me tell me of a continuing inability to access an NHS dentist, of having to travel further for basic hospital appointments and scans, of waiting dangerously long hours for an ambulance, and of family members stuck in hospital beds due to insufficient carers and care packages.

“Eluned’s positive spin on the closure of Welshpool and Caernarfon air ambulance bases is also very different to my view.

“I remain concerned that people in mid Wales will have deteriorating access to air ambulance services as a result of these closures.

“And Eluned’s silence on the proposed removal of stroke services from Bronglais is staggeringly deafening.”

Eluned Morgan has represented Mid and West Wales as a regional MS since 2016, but will be standing in the new-look Ceredigion-Penfro seat in next year’s elections, where Ms Jones is also standing.

“She is top of the Labour list and I am top of the Plaid list,” Ms Jones said.

“As such, I’ll be responding to the Health Board’s Clinical Services consultation on hospital services in our area. I wonder whether Eluned will?

“The people are responding in droves to the consultation, their politicians also need to respond and show leadership.

“This is the most significant reconfiguration proposal for hospital services affecting mid and west Wales in a generation – and it was not mentioned by Eluned in her rose-tinted portrayal of healthcare in our area.

“I understand that the Health Board is as its mid-point review of the consultation.

“It should use this point to pull the Bronglais stroke plan from the Clinical Services Review. It is not fit for purpose, even for a consultation.”

Ms Jones, who has represented Ceredigion since 1999, said that an area the size of the Bronglais catchment needs a fully-functioning district general hospital.”

“Crucially Bronglais needs to be modelled in such a way that recognises that the numbers coming through the door of a rural hospital are always lower than an urban area.

“A one size fits all model cannot work for a rural area.”