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To: Hywel Dda University Health Board
Save A&E units in South West Wales
Recognise the need for A&E services to be close at hand. Retain the A&E units at Glangwili and Withybush Hospitals rather than incorporating them in a central site which will be harder to reach and further from most patients.
Why is this important?
Hywel Dda University Health Board's plans include 3 options - ALL of which will close the A&E units at Glangwili and Withybush hospitals. The Glangwili unit was built relatively recently and Withybush has also been upgraded. The plan calls for building a new major hospital in the countryside "somewhere between Narberth and St Clears".
All 3 options list as a disadvantage that patients will have to travel further to access planned and emergency care in an area already poorly served by public transport and with a limited number of ambulance stations and ambulances to cover a large rural area; while it's true we have the excellent Wales Air Ambulance, that can't be everywhere. Making patients travel further to reach A&E could cost lives.
A secondary issue arises from the likely difficulty patients and visitors will face in travelling to the proposed new hospital, especially if they don't have access to a car.
You can see the plans in detail here: https://www.ors.org.uk/web/upload/surveys/751664/files/BC-MainConsultationDocumentVersion1%281%29.pdf
