Campaigners fighting to save Tywyn Hospital’s inpatient ward say it will never reopen after Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) revealed its latest options for the area, but BCUHB insist no decision has been made and Dyfi Ward could be reinstated.

Tywyn Hospital Action Group claim BCUHB’s consultation meetings regarding the closure of Dyfi Ward were “flawed”, “weighted by the inclusion of BCUHB employees” and lacking a “broad a range of the local population, or other professional experts necessary”.

“No analysis, justification or rationale has been provided for who the health board chose to invite to attend the meetings. In the event, attendees were asked to vote on scenarios for the future of Tywyn Hospital following discussions led by BCUHB in what they called the ‘Tywyn Community Hospital Balanced Room’.

Campaigner Jane Barraclough said: “The weight of public expectation to reopen the ward has been evidenced over and over again, through the petition of over 5,000 signatures, through the response of the community at the public meeting the action group held in November 2023, and reinforced yet again at the public meeting held in August 2025 by the South Meirionnydd Older People’s Forum. Not a single person from any of these meetings has argued for the ward to remain closed.”

The health board said: “Two stakeholder sessions have been held and attended by representatives from patient group, Llais; county and community councils; the Hospital Action Group, wider community groups and local nurse and primary care leaders. The scoring rights and invitations were weighted towards community stakeholders rather than BCUHB employees to ensure that different perspectives were represented. Staff who attended as co-ordinators on the day, including senior managers, did not take part in any scoring.”

BCUHB attended Tywyn Town Council this month to discuss three options for health care in Tywyn. None include reopening Dyfi Ward.

Paulo Tardivel, Interim Executive Director of Transformation and Strategic Planning, said: “We have listened to the community through surveys and face-to-face conversations as well as holding two bespoke stakeholder sessions with representatives of the local community, staff, patient groups, councillors and local clinicians.

“We fully acknowledge the strength of feeling locally about reopening Dyfi Ward. However, when assessed against agreed and co-developed criteria - such as sustainability, workforce availability, and impact on local health needs - the option to simply reinstate the previous inpatient model was scored significantly lower by community representatives than others. It was agreed this approach may not address wider access issues and could undermine newer services that currently support many more people in the local area each week.

“It is important to note no final decision has been made and we welcome all views on the thinking so far, including suggestions for how challenges with reopening the ward may be overcome.

“Later this month our Board will consider the engagement undertaken so far and how we will take this important work forward over the coming months. In the meantime, we’re keen to continue our conversations with the local community and will be collecting further feedback on all potential options before any next steps are agreed.”