Private hospital applies for extension citing huge waiting lists, and NHS benefits
Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter
A private health company has claimed that their £10 million plan to build more operating theatres will allow for more NHS and privately-funded operations to take place, and create 60 jobs.
Circle Health Group has applied to Carmarthenshire Council for a two-storey extension at Werndale Hospital, Bancyfelin, to accommodate two operating theatres, recovery rooms, outpatient consultation space and a pharmacy. There would also be 12 extra car parking spaces.
The planning statement submitted with the application said: “The hospital is at maximum capacity, with waiting lists of over 100 patients for appointments and procedures.”
It added that the hospital saw 19,000 outpatients and carried out 3,500 operations per year.
General surgery
The application also noted that up to half of Werndale Hospital’s patients were NHS referrals and that it had contracts with Hywel Dda and Swansea Bay university health boards for orthopaedic, ophthalmic, dermatology, general surgery and imaging work.
The planned £10 million investment, it said, would enable a further 8,000 outpatients and 800 in-patients to be dealt with annually.
“There is specific demand for this in the area, with long elective waiting lists and a projected population growth which is above the national average,” read the planning statement.
Werndale Hospital currently has 104 contracted staff, 50 “bank” staff, and 64 practicing consultants.
60 new roles would allegedly be created if the extension was built.
In June this year Hywel Dda University Health Board, which covers Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, had 16,006 patients waiting more than a year for treatment.
This was the highest number under Hywel Dda since December 2022, and 1,757 were reportedly waiting more than two years.
The planning statement said the hospital was turned into an NHS cancer and surgery treatment unit during the coronavirus pandemic. A single-storey extension was completed two years ago.
People in the area can comment on the latest plans, and some already have when a pre-planning consultation took place.
There were two objections about potential overlooking from new hospital bedrooms, the proposed yellow entrance area, and car parking.
The planning statement said the hospital was investigating car-sharing and off-site parking during construction, that privacy glass was proposed for new hospital bedrooms, and the entrance would be “burnished copper” rather than yellow.
Council planning officers are assessing the application.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Surgeons who work for the NHS can perform up to five hip operations a day in Werndale wheras they can hardly do any for the NHS to bring down waiting lists. It makes one wonder if this is deliberate just to force patients who are desperate to go private!! Crafty eh? Over £13,000 per hip operation. No wonder they can spend £10m on extensions.
If the Welsh government forgot about more Senedd members ,the £millions saved could be better spent on the health service and the roads which are an utter disgrace!!!
Would you do the same to the devolved governments of Scotland and Northern Ireland? What about the cost of refurbishing Westminster? What about the Crown Estates? What about the fact that we don’t profit from our own natural resources – water, wind, electricity production? What about the billions we contributed to HS2?
Enough whataboutery, confront the issue. It is becoming evident that there are a number of senior practitioners within NHS who see the present crisis as an opportunity to shift the service steadily towards an even higher dependency on private delivery. It’s not all about Tories or any other kind of politician seeking to destroy the NHS, the enemy within the Service is now become an even bigger threat.
Just draining our NHS further. Private medicine drives up the average costs across the health sector. It drains staff from the NHS and really becomes a quite nasty prospect of people dead because they couldn’t afford treatment in our futures. Celebrate capitalism with this, not more help to patients.