In the first fortnight of our Big NHS Change consultation we’ve heard that you want us to hold more public drop-in events about our proposals to fundamentally change the way that we provide local healthcare services so that they are safe, sustainable, accessible and kind for current and future generations.

We’re asking residents across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, as well as the wider cross-border regions, to get involved and have your say on three proposals to improve the way we provide care for our population.

Due to high demand we are pleased to confirm that an extra date has been arranged at Tumble Hall on Monday 9^th July from 2pm-7pm for anyone who would like to come along and speak with our clinicians.

Hywel Dda Chief Executive Steve Moore said: “I’d like to personally thank everyone who has taken the time to provide feedback on our proposals to change the way we provide local healthcare services across the three counties.  Our public drop-in events have been especially well attended so far and as a reflection of this I’m pleased to announce these new dates to ensure that as many people as possible can continue to get involved and talk to our doctors, nurses and therapists about their views.  Don’t forget – if you want your voice to be heard it’s also vitally important that you fill in our questionnaire – you can find this and other resources on our website at www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/hddchange.

Among the biggest challenges the health board currently faces are an ageing population, difficulty for many people in accessing services close to home, significant recruitment challenges – particularly specialist medical staff – and ageing hospital buildings which require a lot of maintenance to keep running.

To overcome these we want to radically change the way we provide local health care services so that people are accessing most of the care and treatment they need in their local community, and are able to stay at home while they are getting treatment rather than having to go into hospital. Reducing the number of main hospitals will mean having fewer medical rotas to fill, making it easier to attract clinicians to come and work for us; it will also mean shorter waiting times and fewer cancellations, and more money for local and community health services.

In all three of the proposals, Bronglais District General Hospital will continue to provide services for mid Wales; a new major hospital will be built somewhere between Narberth and St Clears, and there will be 10 community hubs across the Health Board area.

The proposals are:

Proposal A

• A new urgent care and planned care hospital between Narberth and St Clears
• Community hospitals in Glangwili, Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli and Withybush
• A general hospital in Aberystwyth on the Bronglais Hospital site

Proposal B

• A new urgent care and planned care hospital between Narberth and St Clears
• Community hospitals in Glangwili and Withybush
• General hospitals at Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli and Aberystwyth on the Bronglais Hospital site

Proposal C

• A new urgent care hospital between Narberth and St Clears
• A planned care hospital on Glangwili site
• A community hospital in Withybush
• General hospitals at Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli and Aberystwyth on the Bronglais Hospital site

Hywel Dda’s Executive Medical Director & Director of Clinical Strategy, Dr Phil Kloer, added: “We’ve come up with three proposals that we think are safe, viable and offer an improvement on what we currently have, and we are presenting these to you, to listen and talk to you further and take on board your views and ideas.

“We all have a shared passion for the NHS, our services, our history and our staff and we want to harness this to design, together with you, the best health service for our population. We are so grateful to those of you who have already been involved in this as patients, staff and members of our communities, and we are pleased to be able to provide a platform for further discussion in the form of these additional dates.”

Please tell us your views by:

Completing the online questionnaire at: www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/hddchange

Emailing us at: hyweldda.engagement@wales.nhs.uk

Telephone: 01554 899 056