Lib Dems accuse Reform of naivety in hospital beds row

Martin Shipton

The Liberal Democrats have accused Reform UK Senedd Members of being “extraordinarily naïve” for accepting a health board’s assurance that it has not already settled on a preferred option for proposals that could see hospital beds closed.

Reform issued a statement saying: “James Evans MS, Reform’s Shadow Health Minister, together with Iain McIntosh MS and David Mills MS met senior managers of Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) this week to discuss the future of healthcare services across the county.

“The meeting included a detailed briefing on the health board’s financial position and its Better Together transformation programme.

“The health board outlined its ambition to strengthen community services and provide more appropriate care in people’s homes, helping to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and lengthy stays. It stressed that any changes would need to be introduced gradually, with suitable community services in place first.

“Crucially, PTHB made it clear that no final proposals or decisions have yet been agreed and that formal public consultations have not even begun.

“The health board is due to consider a pre-consultation business case on 16 September. Only if that is approved will detailed options proceed to public consultation, with no final decisions expected before spring 2027.

“Despite public statements and a petition promoted by the Liberal Democrats, PTHB representatives said they do not currently expect any of the options to include the closure of hospital sites. They also confirmed that Powys would continue to have community hospital beds and that there was no plan to withdraw care entirely from Powys.

“The precise functions of individual hospitals and the balance between inpatient, outpatient, ambulatory and community care may form part of the consultation. However, the health board was clear that speculation about agreed hospital site closures is inaccurate.”

‘Concerned’

The three Reform MSs issued a joint statement saying: “We are all deeply concerned about any proposal that could result in Powys losing hospital beds or seeing our already stretched local health services reduced further.

“We will examine any detailed proposals very carefully and will not hesitate to challenge changes that we believe would leave residents with a poorer or less accessible service.

“What we find particularly concerning is that the Liberal Democrats have created a petition on their own website asking residents to help stop the closure of a hospital site when the health board has made no such proposal and does not currently expect site closures to feature in the options.

“Powys has an older and widely dispersed population, covers an enormous rural area and remains the only Welsh county without a district general hospital. Residents already face lengthy journeys for treatment, while local services and staff are under considerable pressure. Those realities must be properly reflected in the funding Powys receives.”

‘Naïve’

In response, Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick and Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds MS said: “Reform are being extraordinarily naïve if they genuinely believe that, after months of work on these plans, the health board does not already have a preferred direction of travel simply because the formal consultation has not started.

“Rather than standing with communities fighting to protect their local hospitals, Reform appear to have swallowed the health board’s assurances wholesale without any critical thinking and are now attacking the people raising the alarm. They should be challenging these plans, not acting as the health board’s cheerleaders.

“The Liberal Democrats are not alone in our concerns. Every single GP practice in Powys has written to the health board expressing concerns about the direction of these proposals. Are Reform seriously suggesting that every GP practice in Powys is wrong too?

“That is not even to mention the more than 7,000 people who have signed our petition and over 1,200 local residents who turned up at public meetings in Ystradglais, Builth Wells, Llanidloes and Welshpool this week where medical staff at our hospitals spoke passionately about what the proposals could mean for our community hospitals.

“And Reform are deliberately dodging the central issue. We have never said the health board is proposing to immediately close hospital buildings; our petition is explicitly about the threat to remove social care/step-down beds.

“But we are also clear: there is a threat of closure by stealth in the long term.

“We have seen this playbook before: beds and services are gradually stripped out of community hospitals until politicians and health bosses eventually turn around and declare what remains financially unviable. What use is calling somewhere a hospital if you have removed its beds and stripped away the services local people depend on?

“Reform may wish to defend the health board and wait until it’s too late to say something, but the Welsh Liberal Democrats will not sit quietly and wait until the damage is done. We will stand with our communities, with local GPs and with patients to fight the removal of beds and services from our community hospitals.”

Budget

The Welsh Liberal Democrats also accused Reform of making inaccurate claims about Ms Dodds’ record after the party said she had supported the previous Welsh Government budget.

The Lib Dems said she did not support the 2025 budget but abstained after securing more than £100m in additional funding, including investment for Powys.

They said this included the restoration of cut services on the Heart of Wales Line in south Powys, additional funding for road repairs, capital projects and public toilets, a £1 bus fare for young people in Powys and £30m for social care, which they said helped cut delayed discharges in Powys by a third.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats also claimed that in his five years as a Senedd Member, Mr Evans had failed to deliver any additional investment or “a single tangible benefit” for Powys.

Ms Dodds also refused to back the most recent Welsh Government budget over concerns about the level of funding for healthcare in Powys.

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