Llanelli Rural Council invited Hywel Dda University Health Board representatives to one of its council meetings as the council gears up to scrutinise the Health Board’s ‘Transforming Clinical Services Health and Care Strategy’.
The health strategy was approved by the Health Board in late November 2018 and going forward it will be translated into a suite of services designed to meet the needs of the public and key groups in a major overhaul of health care services across the health board region.
Council Leader, Cllr Tegwen Devichand commented: “The Council has been keeping its powder dry up to this point because of the uncertainty over the preferred model to be adopted by the Health Board in regard to the extent of services to be retained at Prince Philip Hospital.
“Now that we know what the preferred option is, the council has been keen to impress upon the Health Board how it intends to hold it to account by proactively scrutinising the rolling out of the strategy – a process which is likely to take many years to achieve.
“During the council meeting, members made representations to Health Board officials for the council to serve on its project board overseeing the transformation agenda and in a similar role to that served previously when the council sat on the Front of House Project Board overseeing the transformation of the A&E service at Prince Philip.
“The council believes this will be the most effective mechanism to hold the Health Board to account with it providing the local community with the peace of mind knowing it will have a strong local voice representing their interests when it comes to scrutinising the transformation programme.
“The council’s work will also look to establish close collaboration with other important stakeholders. To this end the council intends inviting back Community Health Council officials to a council meeting in the New Year in order to find common ground on how best we can work together to safeguard important hospital services.”
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