Welshpool councillor slams claim that health workers support hospital plans

A claim that health staff are broadly supportive of major changes that could see Welshpool hospital services drastically downgraded has been challenged by a Welshpool councillor.

Cllr Graham Breeze has questioned comments made by UNISON branch secretary, Cathie Poynton, as Powys Teaching Health Board begins a major consultation on the future of hospital and community health services.

The proposals could significantly change the role of hospitals across north Powys, with Newtown emerging as a main centre for inpatient and urgent care while Welshpool and Llanidloes face losing inpatient beds.

Welshpool could also lose its Minor Injury Unit and X-ray provision under options being considered, with urgent care concentrated in Newtown.

The changes come alongside separate plans for a new health and wellbeing hub in Newtown and longer-term ambitions to replace Montgomery County Infirmary with a new community hospital offering expanded diagnostic and treatment facilities.

However, the Newtown hub project itself is currently facing delays, adding to questions over how and when the wider reorganisation of services could be delivered.

Cllr Breeze, whose Llanerchydol ward includes Welshpool Hospital, has now challenged suggestions that health board staff are largely behind the proposed direction of travel.

At a meeting of Powys Teaching Health Board last month, Ms Poynton, who represents trade unions on the board, said staff had been involved in the development of changes.

She said: “Staff are the ones that are driving the change. They know that the health board needs to change.”

She added: “In the main the staff are with the change and know it needs to be made.”

But Cllr Breeze said those comments raised questions about how extensively staff had been consulted and whether recognising a need for change was the same as supporting the removal of hospital services.

“I have yet to speak to a single member of staff who supports these proposals,” he said.

“In fact, every member of staff I have spoken to is deeply concerned about what these changes could mean for patients, families and the future of healthcare provision in north Powys.”

He said other elected members had reported hearing similar concerns from health workers.

“There is a significant difference between agreeing that healthcare services must evolve and supporting the closure or removal of local services,” said Cllr Breeze.

“Staff may well recognise the pressures facing the Health Board, but that should not be interpreted as support for losing beds and services that local communities rely upon.

“If staff genuinely support these proposals, then the evidence should be published. If surveys have been undertaken, let's see the questions that were asked and the results.”

The row comes as the health board's Better Together consultation gets underway, examining some of the biggest potential changes to health provision in Powys for years.

Among the options are concentrating physical health inpatient beds at fewer hospitals. One option would retain inpatient provision at Brecon, Llandrindod Wells and Newtown, while another would concentrate it further at Brecon and Newtown.

That would leave Newtown with an increasingly important role in providing hospital services for north Powys while removing inpatient provision from Welshpool and Llanidloes.

Another proposal would establish larger Urgent Care Centres in Brecon and Newtown, potentially replacing the current Minor Injury Unit model at a number of other community hospitals.

The health board argues that services need to change because of rising demand, an ageing population and difficulties recruiting and retaining enough staff to maintain services across a large rural county.

It also wants more patients to receive care at home or in community settings, reducing reliance on hospital beds.

The health board has stressed that no final decisions have been made and says the consultation is intended to allow patients, residents, staff and organisations to challenge the proposals and put forward alternatives.

But Cllr Breeze said claims about the level of staff support should be backed by evidence.

“These are the most far-reaching healthcare proposals Powys has seen for a generation,” he said.

“The public deserves to know whether the claim that staff support the changes is based on robust evidence or simply an interpretation of a limited number of conversations.

“Before anyone speaks on behalf of the workforce, local people will want to know exactly how many staff were asked, or was it just a chat in a hospital corridor?”

The Better Together consultation runs until January 10, 2027, with public events due to be held across Powys before the health board considers its next steps.