Vote to save Withybush

Mark Drakeford, Labour’s Health Minister in the Welsh Government ventured as far west as Llanelli last week to tell us that he will not reverse the decision to centralise maternity services from Withybush to Glangwili in Carmarthen. ‘The decision was independently reviewed last year,” he said. “It will not be reversed because the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – in other words, the clinical specialists we have to rely on for advice – tell us that the way things are done now is the best way for mothers and babies.”

 

Mark Drakeford - ignoring evidence presented by the people of Pembrokeshire

What Mark Drakeford failed to explain was that the review was commissioned by himself and relied on a narrow survey of patient experience of the new centralised service collected by Hwyl Dda Health Board. In the process it sidelined submissions relayed directly to it by the public about safety and the problems of travelling from the far west to Carmarthen. In fact the Review Team received 830 replies from the Pembrokeshire public that it described as “a massive response”.

But it chose to ignore this evidence which Sue Eardly, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s Head of Reviews, described as “colourful”, “felt emotionally” and largely the result of “fear of the unknown”. Instead the Review Team relied on data collected by the Hywel Dda Health Board itself. “The picture of actual patient experience gathered by the Health Board is significantly more positive that that expressed by campaigners in the social and mainstream media or at public meetings,” its report said.

That is hardly surprising. After all the Health Board could not be expected to highlight criticisms of itself. I went to the meeting in Llanelli last October when the report was presented to the Health Board. And I asked the following question to Dr John Trounce, a Consultant Paediatrician from Brighton who chaired the Review: “Are you expecting us to believe that out of the 830 responses you received not one, not even one, led you to question whether there have been any safety issues with the removal of consultant led maternity care and the Special Care Bay Unit from Withybush Hospital to Glangwili in Carmarthen?”   

I’ll never forget the look of consternation bordering on panic that passed across Dr Trounce’s face as I put this question. He claimed that all the responses were taken fully into account before stalling and referring to Sue Eardley who was sitting alongside him.

So what chance have we got of reversing the decision? Only one, and that will come at the Assembly election next May. There is only one party that is committed to providing the full range of emergency services to rural hospitals across Wales and also has a realistic chance of being in government to do something about it.

In these columns a couple of weeks ago Paul Davies the Conservative AM for Preseli committed to restoring maternity services to Withybush. But he has been the constituency’s AM for the last nine years and has been signally ineffective in his campaign. For instance, what has he done to highlight the shortcomings of the Royal College review? Furthermore, there is no chance that his party will be in government in Cardiff Bay after May to be able do anything about. That is because no other party of any significant strength would be willing to partner it in a coalition.

Back in 2007 Plaid Cymru went into coalition with Labour to form the One Wales Government and a key condition was an end to the proposals at that time to downgrade Withybush and other hospitals across Wales. What we did then we can do again. The future of Withybush depends on how well Plaid Cymru does in the May election.