Nia Griffith MP and Keith Davies AM have met Welsh Ambulance bosses to discuss concerns about the impact on ambulance services of the changes proposed by the Hywel Dda Health Board which would see more centralisation of hospital services.
“Ambulance bosses told us that across Wales, and indeed across the UK, there has been a significant rise in the number of genuine call-outs to the elderly, which reflects our ageing population. What is of great concern to all of us is seeing patients waiting in ambulances outside hospital A&E departments and the knock-on effect this has on response times to other call -outs, with ambulances often having to come from further away. The existing ambulance service is already over-stretched, and there are clearly very significant implications for the ambulance service if the Hywel Dda health board centralises more services. They need to do a detailed analysis of the cost of the additional vehicles and crews that would be needed to ferry people further to hospital, and they may well find that it could be cheaper to keep services in local hospitals, such as keeping a doctor – led A&E here in Llanelli. I will certainly be making this point to the new health Minister Mark Drakeford AM.”