Pressure is mounting on the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board to secure the future of Llangollen Hospital following comments made by the First Minister Carwyn Jones calling on the health service to be maintained locally.
Plaid Cymru candidate for Clwyd South Mabon ap Gwynfor has been campaigning to secure the hospitals future and discussed the issue with the party’s health spokesperson and deputy leader in the Assembly, Helen Mary Jones. Maintaining small hospitals is also an issue in her constituency.
Helen Mary Jones asked the First Minister, Carwyn Jones:
I wish to bring us back to the health budget. I am sure that you would agree that the investment in local hospital services through the ‘One Wales’ period is something that all of us who have supported your government can be pleased with. Do you believe that that support for local hospital services should continue under the next Government?
To which First Minister Carwyn Jones replied:
I am sure that whoever comprises the next Government after 5 May will want to ensure that health services are delivered as locally as possible.
Mabon ap Gwynfor said:
“I welcome this response from the First Minister. Health Services must be maintained locally. The Besti Cadwaladr Health Board should listen to the views of the community and the political representatives and ensure that Llangollen Hospital has a long term future.
“I have walked the streets of Llangollen collecting names on a petition and talked to people about the future of the hospital. People are understandably concerned about its future. It hasn’t been helped by talk of building a new Health and Social Care Facility on an inappropriate site out of town. The River Lodge is a completely inappropriate place for such a facility and the cost of bulldozing the current structure and building a new build would be astronomical.
What we need is an investment in the hospital, maintaining the beds with health and social care service provision centered on the hospital. Plans for a cultural and martial arts centre at River Lodge would play a part in tackling the major health issues that face the next generation, namely obesity, the increasing levels of heart-disease and other related illnesses.
“The Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board needs to give a firm commitment on the future of Llangollen Hospital.”
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Notes:
Helen Mary Jones’ question to the First Minister can be found here:
Mabon ap Gwynfor 