“We will not let our hospitals be stripped bare” - Montgomeryshire councillors condemn sweeping hospital plans
Welsh Liberal Democrat councillors for Llanidloes Glyn Preston and Fleur Frantz-Morgans and Welshpool Councillors Richard Church and Carol Robinson have vowed to fight plans that would see community hospital beds removed from Llanidloes, Welshpool and Machynlleth, warning that the proposals would leave communities across Montgomeryshire paying the price for the centralisation of healthcare in Powys.
New proposals from Powys Teaching Health Board would see all 49 physical-health inpatient beds currently provided across Llanidloes, Welshpool and Machynlleth removed under every option being put forward for consultation, leaving Newtown as the only hospital providing physical-health inpatient beds across north Powys.
The changes would represent a dramatic reshaping of healthcare across Montgomeryshire, with three communities that have relied on their local hospitals for generations losing inpatient provision altogether.
Welshpool would also lose its Minor Injury Unit once the proposed new Urgent Care Centre in Newtown opens, while X-ray provision would transfer away from the town. X-ray services at Machynlleth would also be removed.
Newtown, meanwhile, would become one of only two enhanced Urgent Care Centres serving the whole of Powys and would take on an expanded inpatient, rehabilitation and recovery role.
The Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrats have warned that investment in Newtown must not be used as an excuse to dismantle hospital services in surrounding towns, arguing that a rural healthcare system needs a strong network of community facilities rather than expecting patients and their families to travel ever greater distances for care.
They have vowed to mount a major campaign across Montgomeryshire against the loss of local services and are calling on the Plaid Cymru Welsh Government to intervene before the plans progress any further.
Commenting, Llanidloes Councillors Glyn Preston and Fleur Frantz-Morgans said:
“We are absolutely furious that after everything the people of Llanidloes have said and done to defend our hospital, we are now being presented with options where every single road leads to the same place: the loss of our beds.
“Five hundred people came to our public meeting in Llanidloes. That should tell the Health Board everything it needs to know about what this hospital means to our community.
“People in Llanidloes will feel angry, betrayed and completely ignored. But we are not giving up. If the Health Board thinks our community is simply going to accept the hollowing out of our hospital, they have seriously underestimated us.”
Adding their comments, Welshpool Councillors Richard Church and Carol Robinson said:
“What is being proposed for Montgomeryshire is devastating and the cuts to Welshpool are even worse than we can imagine.
“Welshpool stands to lose its hospital beds, its Minor Injury Unit and its X-ray provision. Llanidloes loses its beds. Machynlleth loses its beds and X-ray service. One by one, services that generations of people have relied upon are being pulled away from our towns.
“We support better services and investment in Newtown, but this cannot become a choice between investing in one Montgomeryshire town and stripping services from all the others.
“There comes a point where you have to say enough is enough. Our rural communities deserve better than constantly being told that another service has to go.
"The time has come for the Plaid Cymru Health Minister to intervene, Plaid promised a rural premium for public services before the election, now is the time to make good on that promise and help save health care provision in Montgomeryshire."
ENDS