A new hospital in west Wales which could cost more than £1bn will be built on one of three sites in Carmarthenshire, it has been confirmed. Plans to transform healthcare in the region have been in the offing since 2018, and health bosses have now moved a step closer to deciding on where exactly the new urgent and planned care hospital will be located.
Hywel Dda University Health Board (HDUHB) - which is responsible for healthcare across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire - announced proposals to shake-up its health provision in 2018. You can keep up to date with the latest Carmarthenshire news by signing up to the local newsletter here.
A number of sites to the west of Carmarthen were put forward for consideration, and a final three have now been decided upon following a HDUHB board meeting on Thursday. All three are within a four or five mile radius between the towns of St Clears and Whitland in the western part of Carmarthenshire.
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Another site further west in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, which had been under consideration, has been ruled out of the process, as well as another piece of land outside the village of Pwll-Trap. Rather, the new hospital will be built on one of the following three sites (see maps below):
- Site 12: Agricultural land located to the north-east of Whitland town centre and situated between the A40 to the north, Whitland Rugby Club to the east and Spring Gardens to the south
- Site 17: Agricultural land at the old Bryncaerau fields, located adjacent to the junction of the A40 and A477 in St Clears, between the A4066 (Tenby Road) to the south, the village of Pwll-Trap to the north and the A40 to the west
- Site C: Agricultural land and buildings forming part of Ty Newydd Farm which is located to the east of the Old Whitland Creamery site and Whitland town centre
Of the two sites that will definitely not be home to the new hospital, the health board explained that the one just outside Pwll-Trap (Site J) “had the highest risk score based on characteristics of the site” and “scored materially lower than other sites in the technical appraisal, which was made up of a majority representation from the public and used a weighted scoring process in line with what is most important to our communities”.
As for the Narberth site (site 7), that has been abandoned due to “clinical appraisal concerns that a site further west would lead to a reduction in the number of births, neonatal admissions and acute paediatric admissions reducing the critical mass for safe and sustainable services”. Furthermore, health bosses decided that this particular site would have a “negative impact on maintaining trainee status for doctors, nurses and midwives”, and impact on transfer times for patients with certain conditions who needed to be treated further east in Wales.
Plans for the new hospital and the wider shake-up in the region were submitted to the Welsh Government earlier this year, and if and when the go-ahead is given it would represent an investment of £1.3bn in healthcare in west Wales. This, the health board said, “would improve and increase the specialist care services that can be provided and tackle some long standing challenges, including old hospitals, problems in maintaining medical rotas over several hospitals, and staff recruitment”.
Despite rumours circulating previously that Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen and Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest would close, the health board has always maintained that this was never a viable option. Both of those hospitals will be repurposed, however, something you can read more about here. Meanwhile, a petition has been signed by thousands of people in an attempt to protect the A&E status of Withybush Hospital.
The plans have also caused controversy in Llanelli, with a group called Save Our Services Prince Philip Action Network (Sosppan) arguing that the new hospital would be too far away from the town, and that people in the area with accident and emergency needs would be better served going east to Swansea rather than travel through and past Carmarthen to whichever one of the proposed sites was chosen.
HDUHB is adamant that building the new hospital is the best thing for the future of healthcare across the three counties it is responsible for, with hopes that it could be completed and ready to open by 2029. Health bosses will now work with the local community health council to develop a consultation plan so that the public’s views can be heard on the three sites before one is finally chosen.
At the conclusion of the board meeting on Thursday, the health board’s chair, Maria Battle, said: “Our programme business case to the Welsh Government is seeking the greatest investment west Wales will have ever seen, and builds on the foundation of our promise to bring as much care as possible closer to people’s homes through integrated care centres in many towns across west Wales.
“We have listened to and continue to listen to the fears and voices of the public we serve and our staff who understand the frontline challenges of trying to deliver services across so many sites and spread so thinly. We promise as a board to continue to listen and take those views into account at every stage. Recognising the fragility of our services and the risk this poses every day, we do not intend to make changes at Glangwili or Withybush Hospital before a new hospital is built. And afterwards, they will continue to provide valuable health services to our communities.”
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