Hywel Dda Board chips away at NHS

News that Hwyel Dda Health Board are commercialising the café facilities at Withybush and the other hospitals in its area is hardly surprising, given the pressures for privatisation under both Labour and Conservatives in recent years. But it is a damaging and retrograde step nonetheless.

Given that it is the Royal Voluntary Service that is being replaced, after running the service for 37 years, it is also an appalling attack on the ethos of the NHS, going back to its foundation in the 1940s. Instead, Withybush will be getting a Costa Coffee and Amigo shop owned by the multinational Medirest. 

Coffee will be going up at Withybush

 The man responsible for this decision, Hwyl Dda Chief Executive Steve Moore is no stranger to introducing the commercial ethic into health operations. He was previously Consulting Director for a global health consultancy, ICF International, and before that he was a Health Chief Executive in England where the pressure for privatisation is rampant.

In a statement about his decision Steve Moore had these weasel words to say about the RVS, “We are very mindful that for many years Glangwili and Withybush hospitals have been provided with highly regarded, first class services by the RVS for patients, staff and visitors. We hold the RVS employees and volunteers in high regard and we hope to continue to work with them in different roles within the healthcare setting in the future.”

The motivation is plain for all to see. Hywel Dda is seeking every opportunity to raise money by commercialising as much of its operation as it can. It will argue that it has a duty to do this to create opportunities for investing in its frontline health services. So why is the change so harmful?

There are three reasons. The first is that it is part of a wider trend for introducing a business-driven dimension into the NHS whose essential purpose is that its services should be free at the point of use. Hywel Dda will argue that what it is doing in no way undermines that principle. I disagree. Start chipping away around the edges and eventually the whole edifice will start to fray.

Secondly, the decision is anti-democratic in that it flies in the face of what I believe are the views of most people living in Pembrokeshire and its neighbouring counties. There is no way of testing this, of course, because the Board is not elected. It is appointed by the Welsh Government with whom it plays pat-ball in passing responsibility to and fro.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the decision undermines the voluntary contribution that is so essential to the running of the NHS and especially the provision of services in the community for older people. The RVS is central to this. Nathan Evans, its area manager responsible for west Wales, said last week that they would have discussions with Hywel Dda “about how we can work together, with our volunteers, to continue our support for older people in the hospitals and in the community.” I hope this works out but it’s going to be very difficult with part of the RVS foundation knocked away.

More to the point, perhaps, buying a cup of coffee at Withybush is inevitably going to be more expensive in future.