Starmer challenged over ‘healthcare crisis’ in rural Wales

Emily Price

The Prime Minister has been questioned over why his party has not intervened in what has been described as an ongoing healthcare crisis in rural Wales.

Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, David Chadwick, asked Sir Keir Starmer why social care issues in Powys had not been addressed by either the former Welsh Labour Government or the current UK Government.

Powys Teaching Health Board is currently developing proposals for the future of community hospital services.

Options under consideration are understood to include the removal of inpatient beds from eight community hospitals across the county, including those in Ystradgynlais, Builth Wells, Knighton and Bronllys.

If implemented, inpatient beds would remain at just two hospitals in the county.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (July 15) Mr Chadwick said taking beds out of community hospitals was “not a solution to the crisis in social care”.

Sir Keir responded saying: “I would remind [Mr Chadwick] that when his party was in a coalition government, it didn’t do anything about social care.

“They simply cut all our public services and we had to pick up the results of that.

“Mr Speaker, I don’t know the details of the particular case here firstly, but I’ll make sure [Mr Chadwick] gets a better answer on that in writing.”

A petition launched by the Liberal Democrats against the cuts has now gathered over 2,500 signatures, with the party aiming to collect at least 5,000 by the end of the summer.

The Lib Dems say they already receive large amounts of casework where patients are unable to be discharged from hospitals in Herefordshire and Shropshire into communities in Powys due to a lack of beds.

The party says that both the Labour Government in the UK and the former Welsh Labour Government have had “ample time” to address both the crisis in social care and rural healthcare, but have failed to do so.

The Welsh Lib Dems have also raised the issue in Cardiff Bay, with Senedd Member Jane Dodds calling on the new Plaid Cymru ministers to directly intervene to prevent the bed cuts.

Commenting after the exchange with the Prime Minister, David Chadwick said: “Local residents are fed up of watching their local health services cut further and further back.

“People in rural areas pay their taxes and deserve decent quality health care as much as those in any other part of the country.

“Cutting beds in Powys will only worsen the local crisis in social care and will lead to patients receiving that care far away from home and their loved ones.

“It just isn’t right, and if Powys has to outsource these beds to English health boards, it will also cost us more money in the long term.

“Myself and the Welsh Liberal Democrats will continue to fight these unjustifiable cuts and fight for a better healthcare deal for residents across Powys.”