There will never be a doctor-led Accident and Emergency unit at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, the NHS boss covering the Caerphilly County Borough area has said.
Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of the Aneurin Bevan Health Board, admitted that a lack of doctors across Wales and a lack of infrastructure at the hospital in Ystrad Mynach meant there could never be the consultant-led unit.
Campaigners who want a doctor-led A&E unit have said they continue their fight.
He said: “When I hear that people want a doctor-led service and talk to them about Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr and then show them the services that are there it shows we have got more to do to describe them. Maybe labels like A&E don’t help.
“I have met with the campaigners and I didn’t just meet with them, I invited them around the hospital.”
Dr Goodall is also the lead chief executive of the South Wales Programme – a major hospital shake-up in South Wales which would see specialist services such as A&E centralised at four or five hospitals.
He said: “We have got to be pretty honest with the public and the difficulties of shortages – certainly around specialist care. With the South Wales Programme people may have their own views but the number of units providing consultant care does have to change.”
He added: “There is a very good minor injuries unit [at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr], but there will never be an A&E service.”
Lisa Jones, secretary of the campaign group fighting for a 24-hour consultant-led A&E unit, declared they would fight on despite Dr Goodall’s frank admission.
She said: “It’s what we’ve heard before as a campaign and, along with all the people of Caerphilly County Borough, we are not going to give up.
“We had an A&E at the Caerphilly Miners’ Hospital and we need to have one now. The biggest thing about having an A&E at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr is that it is going to unclog the other major hospitals – surely that’s a benefit for all hospital services?”
The £172m Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, which opened in November 2011 and replaced Caerphilly Miners’ Hospital, and currently has a local emergency centre for minor injuries.
Since opening, the new hospital has treated more than 100,000 patients and Aneurin Bevan Health Board has said that emergency treatment services at the new hospital are an improvement on what was at the Miners’ when it closed.
Campaigners argue that services at the Miners’ hospital had been reduced over a number of years.
At a meeting last week about the South Wales Programme, health bosses faced angry questions from the public about the lack of an A&E at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr.
Members of the health board argued it was better to centralise services in fewer hospitals.
They said doctors and specialists could maintain their skills with a higher number of patients coming through the doors .
It is curious how they tell us that the valleys are a city region. Yet if you want to access any services you have to go to a real city.
"…better to centralise services in fewer hospitals." The health board are arguing in favour of crowded A&E departments and long waiting times. There are so many people in the South Wales area that A&E capacity can't cope. Hence the already long waiting times. I waited 4 hours at the Heath to have a few stitches, x-ray and cast put on.
"…doctors and specialists could maintain their skills with a higher number of patients coming through the doors." Even with an increase in the number of A&E departments, the demand will be so great that the doctors will still have many patients to treat.
No of course it won't! It's sole purpose is to be a PRIVATE hospital!
The emergency treatment at Cottage Hospital Ystrad Fawr may well be better than at the Miners Hospital when it closed but are a million miles away from the excellent emergency treatment that used to be on offer before deliberate rundown.
I am fed up with handsomely paid executives of Aneurin Bevan trust telling us that we are getting better services now when this clearly conflicts with the experience of the public. I would respect Dr. Goodall far more if he admitted that the emergency service on offer is not as good as it was and is about to get worse.
To have an a&e at YF would be crazy. Resources need to be centralised to ensure critical services are provided to the standard required. We have UHW, RGH, Prince Charles and Neville Hall nearby. If we had a fully functional A & E this will drain resources from other Gwent NHS trust. At least one of these hospitals can be accessed within 15 minutes of most CCBC residents.
Astonished at some of the comments! Richard insists that "at least one of these hospitals (UHW, RGH, Prince Charles, Nevill Hall) can be reached within 15 minutes by most ccbc residents. I live in Argoed and guess what!
UHW 40 minutes +, RGH 30 minutes +, Prince Charles 30 minutes +, and Nevill Hall 45 minutes +. I used to get to Caerphilly Miners in 25 minutes or less. As for Mr Goodall saying there are no doctors – where did the doctors from the miners Go? If it's down to money, get rid of the managers and the fatcats who are draining our resources.
"We have UHW, RGH, Prince Charles and Neville Hall nearby."
All casualty, sorry A & E, facilities are planned to be closed at three out of four of these, above mentioned, hospitals. Prince Charles may survive in order to serve North Powys and the border areas of England that are also losing cover.
As I have written many times this is more or less a 'done deal' I just wish that the people who are implementing this misbegotten plan would come clean and say that you can forget the level of service you used to enjoy. This is going to cost lives, in my humble opinion.
Was it a done deal when the welsh assembly sold off Caerphilly Miners Hospital for housing promising a new state of the arts hospital at Ystrad Mynach that this hospital was in fact going to be a private hospital and NHS patients would have to go further afield