The deputy leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council has called for a review into the way people are treated at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr’s local emergency centre.
Cllr Keith Reynolds made the comments during a protest march on Saturday organised by campaigners demanding a full Accident and Emergency department at the hospital near Ystrad Mynach.
More than 150 campaigners walked with banners and placards from the site of the old Caerphilly Miners’ Hospital into Caerphilly town centre.
Cllr Renyolds told Caerphilly Observer: “At the very least, we need a full review of the way the emergency centre has operated since the hospital was opened.
“We need to know exactly how many people have been transferred to the Royal Gwent in Newport, maybe unnecessarily. We need to ensure that the services that are available at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr meet the needs of the people of Caerphilly County Borough.”
Also on the march were fellow Labour councillors Ray Davies, of Bedwas Trethomas and Machen, Nigel Dix and Patrica Cook, of Blackwood, and Argoed councillor Leon Gardiner.
Cllr Dix said: “I am definitely supporting the cause. At the end of the day, it is there for the health service to review what is there currently and come back to the people with suggestions. People are looking for an A&E.”
Mariam Kamish, chair of the campaign group, explained why the march started at the old hospital.
She said: “The Miners’ Hospital is such a symbol of what the NHS is all about.
“Caerphilly Miners’ hospital was built by contributions from Miners’ and their families years ago.
“A grass roots campaign, like this one, sent Nye Bevan, a South Wales miner, to Parliament to found the NHS.
“We are not nostalgic about that, we are proud of that. We are not looking backward or forward but using it as an example of how we can fight, we can win.”
The march ended with a rally outside Caerphilly’s tourist information centre.
Campaigner Lisa Jones, 38, from Hengoed, addressed the crowd and told of her own Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr story involving her two-year-old son Fletcher.
Fletcher, now three, had a high temperature and was suffering feveral convulsions from a viral infection.
Ms Jones said: “He collapsed in the house and was lifeless. The new hospital had just opened, but there was no facility for resuscitating children, so it took one hour 20 minutes waiting for an ambulance and deciding where to send him.
“The rapid response team could see how critical it was and were on the radio. The ambulance then arrived and we had a horrific journey to Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil, with his breathing levels dropping. Luckily, we made it just in time and they saved his life.”
The £172m Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, which opened in November 2011 and replaced Caerphilly Miners’ Hospital, 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 previously said it does not have the doctors for a full A&E department in Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr.
Among the marchers on Saturday was retired nurse Christine Davies, 73, from Bedwas. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Mrs Davies spent time working in the Miners’.
She said: “I’ve had experience of taking somebody to Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr on New Year’s Day and found very few facilities – they couldn’t x-ray.
“There was a very good A&E at Caerphilly Miners’ and it was the first port of call. I think people have been duped. The building’s there, but they need the staff. I think eventually it will be a good hospital.”
Her thoughts were echoed by Caerphilly resident Neil Jones, 53, who said: “I feel sad that we haven’t got an A&E available – especially since the way Caerphilly has grown.”
The campaigners are also opposed to the South Wales Programme – a hospital shake-up which could see services centralised in four or five hospitals in the south.
I was proud to march with the campaigners for an A & E hospital to serve Caerffili and the Rhymney Valley. With more than 70,000 households in the borough this is completely justified on population grounds alone; intil fairly recent years there was a 24 hour A & E unit at the Miners, despite some politicians who are not aquainted with the facts saying that this was always an office hours unit.
This campaign has just started and will gather momentum as the people of Wales realise that the 'master plan' is to only provide A & E in 4 to 5, city based, centres. This will be very bad news for those suffering heart attacks, strokes and accidents in the valleys.
Good to know that Keith Reynolds. The Deputy Leader of Caerphilly council, was prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with his constituents who want to see a progressive improvement to the provisions of this Hospital, who does`nt?.
It would be good to see more acceptance, by politicians of all parties, of this quote from one marcher “A grass roots campaign, like this one, sent Nye Bevan, a South Wales miner, to Parliament to found the NHS.It would be a sad day if The Labour Party tried to bury this proud event in Labour`s past by ignoring the views of the huge majority of Caerphilly county Council Voters and side-stepping this local campaign, unless of course they all agree that the current arrangements at this hospital are `adequate` for the increasingly aging residents of the Borough, and, who are more likely to utilise A&E wherever it is situated
I was recently dealt with by an emergency ambulance. It took me to Cardiff, and I was dealt with by the appropriate doctors at the hospital there. I'm glad I didn't go to Caerffili, or Ystrad, because they would never have had good enough doctors at such a place. Caerff and Ystrad are OK for strains, and my wife took me to Caerff with such a problem. Real problems ? You want docs who KNOW, which means Cdf, not Ystrad.
The general public were conned into this from the start, the miners paid for caerphilly and oakdale miners paid for oakdale hospital and the institute. Oakdale residents saw the stute go to st fagans and the hospital closed instead of it being given back to the community that paid for it. Caerphilly miners had a good A and E department.
A hospital without an A and E department that is fully operational is a total waste of time and dangerous for the general public.
I agree with 'Jan' on all counts, to have road signs to Ystrad Fawr saying that there is a hospital there is misleading, there is merely a well equipped clinic. Which ever way the Aneurin Bevan Health Trust words it now, their promise to the public was that we would be getting a new hospital.
Until we do so I hope people from all political parties, and none, join together to raise a fuss.
Once again I have to ask 'where have our elected members been"?
From the very first thoughts on the hospital, there has never been plans for a full scale 24hr A&E. There has been consultation excesses, meetings, press releases, working groups to which few elected members attended. Now it's built we have a problem and listen here comes the band wagon so let's jump on board.
I hope money will not be wasted on a referendum etc – its too late.
Like the recent pay scandal can I ask elected members to do your job – READ, ENGAGE, LISTEN at the start.
I must be watching a different set of events to the above Tax payer ( Nameless) contributor, in respect to the current public campaign in relation to the Ystrad Mynach Clinic`s lack of proper facilities to treat the people of the Borough.
The Contributor says the `Elected` members, presumably they mean Caerphilly Councillors?, are ` jumping on the band wagon` of this particular popular issue, well, who are they? because there was a distinct lack of this rare species at the public demonstration, ( Except: Councillor Keith Reynolds, Caerphilly Town Councillor Richard Williams, and of course Ray Davies, who one has come to expect to stand with his constituents on things he knows are right, and one or two others,) so it is wrong for that contributor to try to tar all local elected members from Plaid or Labour as supporters of the residents of the borough, they are no supporting those who are publicly fighting this cause on behalf of everyone. The huge overwhelming majority of local elected Councillors, particularly Caerphilly town Councillors, DO NOT SUPPORT THE VOTERS WHO PUT THEM THERE ON THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE, and that has to be made plain in readiness for the next time they seek our votes.
For the record I was elected as a Town Councillor for Caerffili in May of last year. Before this I attended most of the Town Council meetings over the previous 5 years as a resident. During this time I cannot recall any of the Borough Councillors present (all Plaid Cymru during this time) raising any concern over the new 'hospital' at Town Council meetings.
Perhaps, like the public, they were duped by the Aneurin Bevan Health Board into thinking that a a £172M hospital would have an accident and emergency department.
OK,how representative was the march?, the march was taken over by the Troyskyist Socialist Party, see the pictures, and Ray Davies`s Cor Coch, he`s never been to any meetings. but suddenly he leads the march along with his out of tune choir, singing thirties communist propaganda songs. I`ve seen this sort of disater in the past when the left wing zealots take over a protest for their own purpose. Caerphilly deserves better.
Ron: You are in fear of loosing sight of the reason for the march by ` shooting the messenger`. You are absolutely correct when you say Caerphilly Deserves Better! But, where are the local political movers and shakers in this public demonstration of discontent over the provision of A&E health services to the citizens of the Borough?.
I was told that Labour particularly have decided that the entire issue is a `Dead Duck` and for that reason no significant Local Labour Party elected members attended the march, I have a view that they ingore this issue at some political peril in the ballot box in the forthcoming round of elections.
Ystrad Fawr was hyped as being a state-of-the-art hospital; it boasts single rooms which sound so much nicer than the privacy-lacking public wards NHS patients normally inhabit. However, just what kind of ailments qualify for admission to this NHS "hostel..?" It merely wastes a lot of precious time for prospective emergency patients who might turn up in error, expecting to be treated at this expensive white-elephant.
What a disgrace. No proper A&E facilities at Ystrad Fawr and yet, they couldn't wait to close the Miners Hospital and turn it into a glorified community centre. This is quite scandalous, when you think that with a bit of TLC, part of the main building could, surely, have been turned into well appointed clinics. Instead of which, Caerphilly residents who need to attend podiatry, child health, sexual health, diabetic, adult mental health, drugs councelling and speech & language therapy clinics, are forced to use the shabby, Denscombe facilities. It lacks adequate parking facilities for patients or staff, so the sensible choice would have been to transfer these clinics to the former Miner's Hospital!
More power to the protesters. I sincerely hope your voices will be heard, because I'm sure you represent many of us who are not physically able to march, but are fully supportive of your endeavours.