A POLITICIAN has raised concerns over the future of health services provided at a Bangor hospital.
Arfon AM Siân Gwenllian says Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board discussions could result in far-reaching reforms to the region’s health provision.
The Plaid Cymru politician says the board will discuss changes at its next board
meeting, including consolidating inpatient urology services onto two sites instead
of three, removing hyper-acute stroke care from two sites and consolidating elective orthopaedics from five sites to three.
Mrs Gwenllian has also questioned why no impact assessment was undertaken
into the effects of downgrading vascular services at Ysbyty Gwynedd on patients living in north-west Wales, who will now be expected to travel over an hour to access emergency treatment.
“We have already witnessed Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board performing a dramatic
U-turn on vascular care for people living in north west Wales, reneging on a promise to protect this world-leading service at Ysbyty Gwynedd,” she said.
“Having failed to satisfy my concerns regarding their commitment to patients living in north-west Wales, the health board are now discussing further changes to key services across North Wales including acute stroke care and urology
services.”
She added: “My real worry is that Ysbyty Gwynedd and patients in the north-west
corner of Wales will once again bear the brunt of an eastwards drift of healthcare without even being remotely aware that such broad reforms are afoot and lives over the course of a few months.
Dr Evan Moore, executive medical director of Betsi Cadwaladr, said: “As our
publicly available draft Three Year Plan sets out, we have a number of challenges in providing high quality, effective and sustainable services for the
North Wales population.
“At present, some of our services are spread too thinly across hospital sites and are
simply not sustainable for the future.
"Our plan details our direction for the next three years, outlining our thinking
around possible changes we need to make.
“There is strong evidence of better results for patients when specialist services are
consolidated so that clinical teams work together on more specialised cases.”
Dr Moore added: “We are committed to improve how we involve and listen to people.”
The board will discuss the full draft plan in public at a meeting next month.
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