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Delyth Jewell, who represents Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.

Access to hospital services across Caerphilly and the south east of Wales is becoming a significant problem.  Since the Miners’ Hospital closed and services have become more and more centralised, it’s meant that patients now have to travel long distances to get to appointments, and it’s a real worry that there’s no A&E in the Rhymney valley. 

I’ve been helping constituents who are having to grapple with the reality of what this means – from the women living in Abergavenny who have to travel to Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr for breast cancer appointments, to those living in Caerphilly who have to make a 56 mile round-trip to get to gynaecology appointments in Nevill Hall. 

It’s an issue that will be affecting men and women of all ages, and the cases I’m dealing with are unfortunately far from unusual.

It’s so frustrating that we have Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr on our doorstep in Ystrad Mynach and yet so few services or clinics are actually held there. When the Miners’ Hospital closed, residents were assured that there’d be no disruption to their care, but I’m afraid that an over-centralisation of services has led to just that happening. 

Recently, the significant pressures of Covid and staff shortages led to the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran declaring a black alert, asking residents to only go to the hospital if their life was in danger or they had a serious injury. 

That incident, mercifully, didn’t last for long, but experiences like this will be incredibly stressful for our hard-working NHS staff.  They also highlight how badly-served residents in Caerphilly are when it comes to A&E services. 

The centralisation of hospital services hasn’t worked for staff or residents, and that’s why I’m calling for a review of how hospital services are configured in Caerphilly and across the south-east of Wales.

The long distances that patients have to travel to appointments, from routine clinics to more specialised care, is something that comes up a lot in my mailbag, and if it’s an issue that affects you, I’d be very grateful if you’d be willing to share your experiences with me, so that I can get a better idea of how this is affecting people in the area. 

The 56 mile round-trip I mentioned was to get from one part of Caerphilly to Nevill Hall, but the constituent in question had a car, and I know that those who rely on public transport will be facing yet more inconvenience when trying to travel across the valleys to hospitals in Newport, Cwmbran or Abergavenny.

When people go to medical appointments, they’re already going to be dealing with some stress, and I really believe that it’s wrong to be adding more strain on them by asking residents to travel vast distances to access the help they need. 

The configuration of our hospital services has to be reviewed, and if this is something you agree with, please get in touch with me – my email address is Delyth.Jewell@Senedd.Wales