Proposals to cut community hospital beds in some of Wales' most rural areas have met with strong resistance. The plans would see inpatient beds reduced from 146 to either 90 or 60 in Powys, with services concentrated in just two or three of the county's eight community hospitals. It means inpatient wards could disappear from Welshpool, Machynlleth, Ystradgynlais and Llanidloes, while Llandrindod Wells could also lose its beds under the most extensive option.
Powys Teaching Health Board said the changes were needed to make services safe and sustainable, arguing that its current model was increasingly difficult to staff and deliver across such a large geographical area. A 14-week public consultation on the future of health services in Powys was now under way, but the plans had already been opposed by GPs, politicians and communities concerned about the impact on an ageing rural population. In August more than 400 people attended a public meeting in Llanidloes to oppose the closure of community hospital beds in the town.
A drop-in meeting was held in Llanidloes on Tuesday, following a number of public meetings in other parts of Powys to discuss the health board's plans. Jill O'Connor, from the Llanidloes Hospital Alliance Group said plans to instead deliver more care in the community were not workable, arguing that it would be difficult to provide care for people who live at least 20 or 30 miles out of town in remote rural areas, particularly in the middle of winter. "It beggars belief that they want to go and work, treat people in homes when actually... you can treat a bigger group collectively in a hospital rather than with individual staff," she said.
"And we don't think that they've actually put the infrastructure in place. "Yes, they will have excess numbers of nurses... from the hospitals that they're going to close, but those people need training up," she said. "The community feels very passionately that this is their hospital and it serves the community." Powys has one of the oldest populations in Wales, with more than a quarter of residents aged over 65.
The health board estimates the average journey time to inpatient care could rise from around 12 minutes to 24 minutes under the proposals. For some people living furthest from hospitals, journeys could take more than 45 minutes each way. The impact of potentially losing local inpatient facilities is causing concern for many families.
Tuppin Scrase said his wife died five years ago after receiving palliative care in Llanidloes, and that he would not have been able to see her if she had not been cared for further away. "At that time, it was the time of Covid, and if she'd had to remain in Shrewsbury or Aberystwyth, which are our nearest general hospitals, I could never have seen her," he said. "In the whole month it took her to die, I would not have been able to see her.
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