Caerphilly AM Jeff Cuthbert has said he will oppose any move to scale back opening hours at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr (YYF) after plans were announced to remove trainee doctors.
The Wales Deanary, which is responsible for training of doctors, has said it intends to withdraw junior doctors from the hospital by February 2015.
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has said it wants urgent discussions with the Wales Deanery after it put forward the plans at the hospital in Ystrad Mynach.
The health board has warned that such a move would make running the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) between 8pm and 8am “totally unsustainable”.
Caerphilly AM Jeff Cuthbert said: “I’m clear, and the health board is clear, that should junior doctors be removed from YYF then this would result in the hospital being unable to open to the public between the hours of 8pm and 8am.
“This would go against what was previously agreed and could have far reaching consequences for my constituents who will be rightfully concerned. I categorically oppose the Wales Deanery’s plans and I strongly urge them to reconsider these proposals.”
A report from the health board by the hospital’s manager Trisha Edwards, said: “The Wales Postgraduate Deanery has issued a directive that Core Medical Training doctors undertake their out-of-hours on-call training in a busier district general hospital, namely the Royal Gwent Hospital.
“The health board has been made aware that it is the further intention of the Deanery to withdraw all remaining junior doctors from February 2015 for out-of-hours work.
“This makes running the hospital during the out-of-hours period, totally unsustainable resulting in the hospital only being able to assess and admit patients between the hours of 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, with the MAU and the Minor Injuries Unit having to close outside those hours.”
The Wales Deanery has said three, more experienced junior doctor training posts and a number of non-training posts will be available for out-of-hours duties at the hospital beyond February 2015.
what was the point to building this hospital its not fit for purpose as it is now!!!
In my opinion a giant con trick has been played against the people of Caerffili and the Rhymney valley. We were told that the Miners, a very good hospital, was to close but was to be replaced by a modern hospital.
Does anyone remember Aneurin Health Board telling us that this new building would have no doctors and no A & E? I doubt very much if anyone does as we were all duped into believing that we were to get a replacement that did not just replace the Miners Hospital but surpassed it in every way.
In around thirty years Caerffili has declined from a town with an excellent hospital that had X-ray facilities, operating theatres and a 24 hour A & E unit to just having a clinic a few miles up the road. This duplicity has been perpetrated by the Health Board and the, so called, Welsh Government who think people are too daft to recognise what has been taken from them. Senior politicians have even told me that there never was a 24 hour A & E at the Miners, not knowing that I had been treated there. Disgraceful!
Please sign and share for an inquiry into welsh NHS:
https://www.assemblywales.org/en/gethome/e-petitions/Pages/petitiondetail.aspx?PetitionID=653