£33m hospital investment a ‘a lost opportunity’ – MS

Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter

£33m of investment into a north Wales hospital is a “lost opportunity”, claims Clwyd-West MS Darren Millar.

The Welsh Government-funded investment into Rhyl’s Alexandra Hospital will see a new minor injuries unit “capable of treating more than 20,000 patients a year”.

The plans are designed to ease pressure on the emergency department at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan.

Also announced this week as part of the plans is a 14-bed “ready-to-go-home” reablement unit, bringing NHS and social care teams together to help patients transition home after medical or surgical treatment.
Radiology services will also be expanded, and four new dental suites will be created to improve access to NHS dentistry and boost training opportunities for dental nurses.

The new facility is due for completion in 2027.

But the plans have been scaled down significantly from what was originally announced over a decade ago – with the number of beds alone cut by more than half.

Senedd Conservative leader Mr Millar criticised the Welsh Government for “popping champagne corks” following a visit to Rhyl from Labour’s First Minister and Health Secretary this week.

“The Welsh Government is desperately trying to paint a picture of the massively improving NHS in north Wales, but anybody who has got any personal experience of the NHS knows it is under massive pressure, and those pressures have only got worse over the past 13 years,” he said.

“What we saw earlier this week was the First Minister and Health Secretary trying to pop the champagne corks about the announcement of a new hospital in Rhyl, which has been announced half a dozen times in the past and failed to materialise, which is now half the size of the project which was initially envisaged, and this is in spite of the fact that the pressures have only got worse since the original announcement was made in 2013.

“Far from popping the champagne corks, what they should be doing is explaining to people why they think that something half the size is going to make one bit of difference to the people of North Wales, and in particular North Denbighshire.”

He added: “The latest stats on the Glan Clwyd emergency department are the worst on record. Only 30% of people who go through the front door will actually be out of the emergency department within the four-hour target time, and a third of people who turn up at the front door are taking 12 hours to get out. I mean, that’s by far the worst-performing emergency department in the whole of Wales.

“So it desperately needs investment in other services, and the Rhyl investment now is effectively a lost opportunity.”

Improvements

Earlier this week the Cabinet Health Secretary for Wales, Jeremy Miles, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that improvements were happening, but they needed to happen “faster”.
Mr Miles said that Welsh Government was “working hard” and that they had “put extra money into the health board” as well as a “team of extra support” to “help the health board with their A&E pressures”.
The Welsh Government declined to comment.