LLANELLI’S AM Lee Waters has said that Prince Phillip Hospital is the ‘jewel in the crown’ ahead of proposed changes to hospital services by the Hywel Dda University Health Board.
Hywel Dda University Health Board will present the public with preferred options to transform community and hospital services this spring.
The Health Board is proposing change so that it can make the most of every opportunity to improve population health and health services locally, as well as face its challenges and ensure services are the safest and highest value they can be for communities in mid and west Wales.
Lee Waters AM said: “The NHS is under pressure all over the country and there are particular challenges in Hywel Dda because we have more elderly people than average and providing services in large rural areas is more expensive and harder to recruit staff. I think there are exciting new technologies in development which we should be harnessing to help with these pressures.
“Hywel Dda are rightly looking at how they deliver services in the future and I’m pleased that they’ve learned the lessons from the fight over the future of Prince Phillip Hospital a few years ago because this time it is the clinicians who are leading the review.
“I spoke to the Chair of Hywel Dda yesterday and she assured me that they regard Prince Phillip Hospital as the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the Health Board and it is being seen as a model for other areas”
Nia Griffith MP added: “I will always speak up for getting the best possible access to hospital services for people in the Llanelli constituency, and for keeping services at Prince Philip Hospital.
When I sought reassurances from the Chair of Hywel Dda, she explained that the health board is currently looking at a whole range of options, and stressed the considerable investment that has gone into Prince Philip and Pride in the services there. I will be keeping a close eye on the situation.”
