It may not be everyone’s idea of a great way to spend a couple of days by camping out alongside a busy road outside a busy hospital in these cold conditions but that is exactly what Adrian Morgans is doing over the next couple of days as he launches his campaign to highlight the difficulties people face when services at the Prince Philip Hospital are closed.
Adrian believes that there is more to come and says that the people of Llanelli must be alert to the possibility of further closures and disruptions to hospital services.
Speaking to Llanelli Online earlier today, Tuesday (Mar 6) Mr Morgans who was accompanied by Shaun Greaney said: “We have been here for a while now and we have had a lot of people beeping their car horns in support. A hospital guard came out and asked us what we were doing. We are on public land so we are O.K. Cllr Sian Caiach also popped by to offer her support.
“A few of the hospital staff have passed by and given us the thumbs up. I am outside, it is cold but it is going well and we are getting a lot of encouragement. I am hoping to stay until Monday and see where we go from there. We have put petitions in stores in Llanelli including Millets in Trostre and a T-Shirt printing shop in Llanelli town centre. They also printed T-shirts for us.”
Cllr Sian Caiach reacted to the impromptu campsite with approval. Speaking about the closure of the out of hours GP services she said:
“We have seen a lot of services being lost by this hospital. Despite the fact that we have the largest population in the Hywel Dda area we actually are losing services still from our hospital. Hopefully the out of hours GP services can be somehow restaffed but it is worrying that one of the services has actually gone at the moment.
“Once you starve an area of services it becomes less attractive for people to come and work here. If you are in a hospital which hasn’t got all the facilities it is a problem. Hywel Dda have not thought through what their changes mean, they simply made cuts which were convenient for them as an entity rather than for the local people and here in Llanelli I think we have been absolutely betrayed. We have a lot of people who live here who can’t afford to travel who don’t have the means to go and get help anywhere else and it is getting worrying.”
