Give change a chance in this election

It’s less than three weeks until the elections for the National Assembly on 5 May and postal voters start casting their ballots next week. Yet moving around Pembrokeshire you would hardly know an election was underway. A few placards have appeared to be sure, but most of them are located along the roadsides in farmers’ fields, and fields don’t vote.

Springing up like Spring flowers

I should declare an interest. I am standing for Plaid Cymru in the election. The overriding issue is the future of Withybush hospital in Haverfordest. It is essential to restore the maternity and paediatric services that have been lost in the past couple of years. If we don’t, then other specialities will be undermined at Withybush with the provision of a 24-hour Accident and Emergency service at stake.

So how best can we get these vital services back? Labour’s Health Minister Mark Drakeford who has overseen the downgrading of Withybush, stated in February that he would not reverse the decision. Preseli’s Conservative Assembly Member for the past nine years has been ineffectual in preventing the downgrading of Withybush. Plaid Cymru is the only party committed to restoring paediatric and maternity services to Withybush and also has a chance of being in government to put this into effect.

So what are the priorities? First, we must press Hywel Dda Health Board to restore 24/7 paediatric consultant cover to Withybush as a matter of urgency. In March I met with the Health Board Chief Executive Steve Moore who admitted that removal of the cover in August 2014 had been a mistake.

Secondly, we need to campaign for the restoration of consultant-led maternity care at Withybush. Steve Moore had no answer when I put it to him that a woman in labour at Withybush who is suddenly found to require a caesarian operation constitutes an emergency. Plaid Cymru is committed to hospital-based Accident and Emergency services, including maternity consultants, being within an hour’s reach of everybody in Wales. That means that in an emergency you will reach hospital within an hour of calling for an ambulance.

And thirdly, we need an improved ambulance service in Pembrokeshire. Hywel Dda Health Board only has 15 ambulances, the lowest ratio of ambulances to population of any Health Board in Wales. We need at least 20.

It is also vital to defend other essential services that are threatened in Pembrokeshire. For example, we must persuade the council to stop it taking sixth forms away from secondary schools so that students can choose where to study.

Preseli Pembokeshire urgently needs a stronger voice in Cardiff Bay. The county has been let down by the Labour Government for the past 17 years - far too long for just one party to be in power. Only a change in government will give Pembrokeshire a fair deal. The London parties are divided and quarrelling amongst themselves. If Plaid wins in Pembrokeshire it will become the main opposition party in Cardiff Bay and Labour will lose its overall majority. Plaid will then challenge the other opposition parties to support Leanne Wood as First Minister rather than handing Labour another five ineffective years in power.