Purt’s policies that undermine the NHS

A few weeks ago the daughter of a friend of mine, in her twenties, developed severe abdominal pains and found herself at the A&E department of Withybush hospital. The waiting room was packed with holidaymakers and it was clear that the staff were at the end of their tether. She waited five hours.

By the time she was eventually seen the pains had subsided. She was told that she should have been sent to Glangwili in Carmarthen and was given the choice of either making her own way there or going home. She went home.

While she was at Withybush she got talking to an elderly man with a back injury. He also sat in pain for hours without being seen. Eventually his wife went to complain. She was told there were not enough staff on duty to cope with everyone since no special provision had been made for the summertime boost to the local population.

I relate this not to criticise the medical staff at Withybush. They are doing their best in extremely trying circumstances. Rather, the episode illustrates once again how essential it is to retain our hospital services in Pembrokeshire, and especially those that deal with emergency care.

Yet our essential services are steadily being chipped away. Last year we lost the Special Care Baby Unit and mothers are being directed to Carmarthen to have their babies. Paediatric cover is being reduced. Consultants at the hospital are warning that 24-hour A&E is under threat.

All this is happening as a result of decisions made by the Welsh Government in Cardiff, to save money by centralising basic services away from the scattered rural populations of west and north Wales. Welsh Health Minister Mark Drakeford operates at arms length in pursuing this policy, delegating powers to the Health Boards. Nevertheless, he is responsible for the key appointments and overall strategy.

This was made transparent a few weeks ago when he was forced to put the failing north Wales Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board into ‘special measures’ - that is, direct rule. As part of this process the Board’s chief executive Trevor Purt was suspended.

Until last summer when he was sent to north Wales Trevor Purt had been chief executive of the Hywel Dda Health Board for five years. He is responsible for the downgrading of Withybush, appointed in 2009 for precisely this purpose. Before that he was involved in centralising services in northwest England. Between 2003 and 2006 he oversaw the merger of the Rochdale and Heywood Middleton Primary Care Trusts and introduced private sector treatment centres. This prompted the chairwoman of the Trust Debbie Abrahams to resign claiming that Purt’s policies were “destroying the NHS”.

Unsurprisingly, Trevor Purt’s short tenure at Betsi Cadwaladr was dogged by controversy. Plans to shut down a maternity unit were met with massive demonstrations. As the Herald commented when it reported his suspension: “wherever Trevor Purt goes recruitment problems, protests, closures, and controversy are not far behind.” How can we have faith in the Welsh Health Minister’s reassurances about the NHS when he appoints people like Trevor Purt?