Campaigners claim downgrading of injuries unit would ‘jeopardise people’s safety’

Martin Shipton

Campaigners fighting to save Prince Philip Hospital’s minor injuries unit from downgrading have accused the health board of jeopardising the safety of the people of Llanelli.

Hywel Dda University Health Board is pressing ahead with plans to shut the unit for six months between 8pm and 8am from November 1, stating it will not rethink the decision.

It says the unit is unsafe, blaming difficulties recruiting doctors, soaring stress levels among the Emergency Nurse Practitioners – resulting in excessive sickness – and people presenting at the unit with serious injuries or conditions for its decision to axe 24/7 cover.

Mismanaged

Campaign group Save Our Services Prince Philip Action Network (SOSPPAN), which is non-political, is arguing that the health board has mismanaged the unit and its decision will put lives at risk.

“The health board promised when it got rid of the accident and emergency service at the hospital that the minor injuries unit would be manned around-the-clock,” said SOSPPAN chair, Cllr Deryk Cundy.

”It is now going to put the safety of the community in jeopardy by breaking that promise. It is outrageous that the board has taken this decision in the name of safety. What about the safety of the people of Llanelli? That should be its top priority. We fear that as a result of this decision lives may be lost.”

People suffering from serious potentially life-threatening conditions – including sepsis, asthma, stroke, and heart attacks – would face journeys to Carmarthen’s Glangwili Hospital, 24 miles away, and Swansea’s Morriston Hospital, 11 miles away.

In the year to the end of September more than 6,000 people used the minor injuries unit during the night hours.

Pressing need

Campaigners say the figures prove the pressing need for the service.

Cllr Cundy said: “We know that Morriston and Glangwili hospitals’ accident and emergency services are creaking at the seams without the extra demand the extra patients will place on them.”

There are doubts also over whether the ambulance service – and the police, who often ferry patients at night to the minor injuries unit – could cope with the extra demand.

SOSPPAN vice-chair, Cllr Suzy Curry, said: “The cutback to daytime hours only has caused huge fear and concern in Llanelli. It has been done without consultation and people genuinely are in fear for their lives and those of their loved ones.

“It is totally unacceptable that the people of Llanelli are being treated as second class citizens by the health board. The blame for this lies at their door. The staff are great, doing a great job in difficult circumstances; the problem is with the management and the health board.”

SOSPPAN’s protest petition, which urges the health board to make a U-turn on its decision, has amassed more than 10,000 signatures in a matter of weeks.

Camped

Campaigners have camped outside the unit around-the-clock, in all weathers, since the controversial decision was taken to close the MIU overnight.

Llanelli’s MP, MS, MIND branch, and the Chamber of Trade and Commerce have all voiced strong objections to the downgrading.

Llanelli MS Lee Waters has written to the chair of Hywel Dda University Health Board Neil Wooding calling on it to reconsider its decision.

“It is not too late to show that you are listening,” wrote Mr Waters. “The strength of feeling at the loss of overnight medical cover for such a large and needy population is striking, and as public servants we surely must all take note of that and recommit to finding a way through that meets local needs.

“I would like again to ask you to reconsider your decision, and to make extra efforts to find one GP a night to cover the MIU to enable it to remain open.

‘If you double down in the face of such opposition you are surely building up a problem elsewhere in the system, most notably in the already overstretched A&E departments at both Glangwili and Morriston. I do not see how this makes sense.”

Llanelli MP Dame Nia Griffith, who has often joined protesters outside Prince Philip Hospital in the last three weeks, urged people to make their views known at a special drop-in event with Minor Injuries Unit staff at the Antioch Centre in Copperworks Road between 2pm and 7pm on Wednesday October 23.