COLUMN: Protect and support healthcare must be top priority
“Protecting and supporting healthcare and emergency services in rural mid Wales must remain a top priority.
Two current issues have dominated the news recently, potential delays in planned treatment, and the ongoing campaign to save the Welshpool Air Ambulance base.
Powys Teaching Health Board have been discussing measures to address financial pressures as it nears the end of a challenging financial year. Among the proposals was a deeply concerning plan, asking health providers in England to slow down the delivery of planned care treatment, including outpatient appointments and operations, for Powys patients.
We in Powys rely on hospitals across the border in England for treatment, and this proposal risks creating an unjust disparity where Welsh patients wait longer than their English counterparts, even though Welsh and English patients are treated by the same healthcare professionals, within the same hospital.
These measures should never have been suggested in the first place. It would be ludicrous if patients from Wales were forced to wait longer for treatment due to financial constraints, even though there is sufficient capacity to treat patients within NHS Hospitals just over the border. Many already endure long waits in pain and discomfort.
Powys Health Board recently agreed to delay taking a decision on the proposal. This allows Powys Health Board to talk further with cross-border partners, but it’s also an opportunity for the Welsh Government to step in.
I have asked both the Health Secretary and the First Minister about Welsh Government support for Powys Health Board. The Welsh Government must act immediately to ensure that patients do not wait longer than is necessary.
When I pleaded with the First Minister about this issue last Tuesday, she informed me that it would not be acceptable for a situation like the one I outlined to occur. I took the answer as more positive than the reply I had received the week before.
Given the First Minister’s response to me, that she considered the proposal to be unacceptable, the question she now needs to address is how the Government will ensure the health board is fully funded to a point where it is able to buy healthcare capacity in England, based on English waiting times, rather than the much longer NHS waiting times here in Wales.
I am pleased the First Minister has confirmed that conversations between the Health Board and the Welsh Government will continue. You can be sure I will keep raising the matter with the aim of the proposal being dropped.
While financial concerns threaten to delay treatments, another vital lifeline for our communities remains at risk. The proposed closure of the Welshpool Air Ambulance base announced last year.
A body within the Welsh NHS called the Joint Commissioning Committee (JCC) approved the closure despite strong objections from the public and Powys Health Board.
The Air Ambulance is a lifeline for rural Wales, and the closure of the Welshpool base would be a devastating blow. Replacing this service with road-based alternatives is deeply impractical for areas like Montgomeryshire, where extreme weather and road closures are common. One delay could be the difference between life and death.
As a member of the campaign team, we continue to work to challenge the decision. We were encouraged that a judge allowed a case to be heard in a High Court hearing. The legal team that that we have been working with will argue that the JCC’s decision lacked transparency, failed to consider the unique needs of rural communities, and challenge the process that led to the decision.
The hearing is set to be heard this Wednesday and continue into Thursday.
I believe that the proposals to close the Air Ambulances base in Welshpool were based on flawed information, and the legal team will present this argument.
As a campaign team, we continue to believe that large parts of mid Wales will experience slower response times if the Welshpool base is closed, and at times won’t receive a timely critical care response at all if the proposed changes proceed.
It is of course not possible to say if the legal challenge will be successful. A judge will hear the arguments and make a determination at a later date. Based on the evidence, research, and the work of the campaign team, working alongside the legal team presenting the case, there is good reason to feel positive about the outcome of the challenge.
I have been impressed with the legal firm, Watkins and Gunn, and let’s remember that being allowed the opportunity to present at a hearing demonstrates that a judge considered the case has merit to be examined in the first place.
We in Mid Wales are not asking for preferential treatment, we are asking for fairness, the people of mid Wales deserve the same standard of care as those in urban areas.
The Welsh Government must step up and ensure that rural communities are not left behind. Whether by supporting health boards financially to avoid treatments being delayed, or intervening to save the Welshpool Air Ambulance base, action is needed, and it’s needed now. Anything less would be a betrayal of the trust and needs of rural Wales.
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