Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr A&E campaigners to stage protest march

Campaigners who want a full 24-hour Accident and Emergency department at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr will stage a protest march through Caerphilly town next month.

The staging of the march was agreed at a public meeting public meeting held at the Greyhound Stadium in Ystrad Mynach on Tuesday night to debate

More than 50 people attended the meeting to hear the progress of the A&E campaign so far.

The £172m hospital, which opened in November 2011, has a local emergency centre for minor injuries. Campaigners say this is not enough and that Caerphilly County Borough needs its own A&E.

Senghenydd resident Mariam Kamish, from the campaign’s organising committee, told attendees the campaign was also opposed to the South Wales Programme – a hospital shake-up which could see services centralised in four or five hospitals.

She also revealed details of a meeting between the campaign and Dr Andrew Goodall, the chief executive of Aneurin Bevan Health Board, where he offered them a tour of the hospital.

Ms Kamish said: “He said the public thought there was going to be a full-blown A&E – the message didn’t get out. They’re still defending what they haven’t done – one of the people in the meeting also said ‘I still believe Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr is state of the art’.”

Concerns were aired by attendees about ambulance waiting times, staffing levels among doctors and nurses, and the increased importance of a local A&E when a new sports academy is built on the site of the old Ystrad Mynach Hospital.

There were also questions as to why Caerphilly’s Labour AM Jeff Cuthbert and Plaid Cymru’s AM and former Caerphilly Council leader Lindsay Whittle had not attended the meeting.

Cllr James Pritchard, who works with Mr Cuthbert, explained that he was in an Assembly meeting. Plaid Cymru Councillor Lyndon Binding also explained that Mr Whittle was in a meeting but that he also fully backed the campaigners in an apparent turnaround to his previous stance.

Organisers agreed to lobby Mr Cuthbert at one of his upcoming surgeries.

Campaigners have an online petition and have also distributed physical copies across the area for people to sign in person.

Since opening in November 2011, the new hospital has treated more than 100,000 patients.

Aneurin Bevan Health Board has previously ruled out an A&E at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr.

The protest March is set to take place at 11.30am in Caerphilly town centre on February 16 with plans to start it at the old Miners’ Hospital site.

The campaign is also selling t-shirts, for people to show their support, which can be ordered at £6.95 each by contacting Mariam Kamish on 07772520192.