Consultation Launching On Changes To Maternity Services

A six week consultation is to be launched looking to gather views on temporary changes to women’s and maternity services in North Wales with politicians urging people to get involved.

The decision was announced after a meeting of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in Llandudno on Tuesday and several politicians have voiced their hope that people from the Wrexham area express their views on the matter.

Doctors and nurses, as well as senior clinical leaders from across the UK, have raised concerns about the safety of the service in its current form. The temporary changes will last for a short time and is to ‘ensure stable services are in place in the long term, supporting the development of the Sub Regional Neo Natal Unit at Glan Clwyd Hospital’.

The health board’s preferred arrangement is to provisionally suspend consultant-led maternity services at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.

However, as well as this option, the consultation outlines a further 3 possibilities which are keeping services at the Bodelwyddan site and changing them at either Bangor or Wrexham, or leaving services as they are.

The consultation is formally launched on Monday, with a series of meetings taking place across North Wales where members of the public can hear a presentation about the issues and then discuss these with senior clinical and management staff.

An event will be held locally at the Wrexham Memorial Hall on Friday 11 September.

Local Assembly Member Lesley Griffiths, and former Minister for Health and Social Services said: “It is clear the health board would not be proposing any temporary changes unless they felt it was absolutely necessary, and the most important factor must be to ensure a safe maternity service across North Wales.”

“As the proposals affect local residents, I would encourage people from Wrexham to take part in the consultation.”

Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru’s North Wales AM said: “The board has admitted that public confidence is low. We all want to see an improved NHS and the geography of the region means it’s impossible to impose a centralised city-style model of healthcare.

“The problems BCUHB has faced in terms of recruiting specialist doctors have, to an extent, been of its own making. Creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and instability has not helped attract doctors here and there seems to have been little pro-active work with the Wales and Mersey Deanery to ensure training in the region.

“Training and recruiting doctors is a long-term process so things won’t get significantly better overnight. However, I don’t believe that closing consultant-led services in any of the three existing maternity services is the right answer, no matter how temporary in nature it’s said to be. Given that the plans for the Sub-Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Centre (SuRNICC) are moving forward for Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, with neonatologists being recruited, it makes no sense at all to withdraw services from the very same hospital.

“I would urge everyone to take part in the consultation, to make sure the board understands that the general public as well as midwives, doctors and nurses do not want to reduce services in our NHS. It’s vital that the board then listens to those voices or this entire consultation will be a waste of time.”

Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said that the consultation was a “welcome reversal of the original decision and it is something I and my colleague Aled Roberts have been calling for since that time.”

“It’s a pity that the Board didn’t see fit to consult in February rather than take what turned out to be a botched decision to downgrade maternity at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and stop carrying out breast surgery at Wrexham Maelor and Ysbyty Gwynedd.

“This consultation must also focus on the longer term and the establishment of the Sub-Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Centre (SuRNICC) facility for Wales at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. It is imperative that appropriate action is taken to ensure that facility goes ahead as planned.

“I would now urge the people of North Wales to get fully involved in this consultation and once again make their views clear to the Board. In the interests of patient safety both consultant-led maternity services and other women’s clinical services must remain on all three sites”.

The consultation will run from Monday 24th August to – 5 October.

BCUHB have arranged meetings during September where members of the public can hear a presentation about the issues and then discuss these with senior clinical and management staff:

September

• Wednesday 9th Rhyl Town Hall, Wellington Road, Rhyl, LL18 1BA
• Friday 11th Wrexham Memorial Hall, Bodhyfryd, Wrexham, LL12 7AG
• Tuesday 15th Holyhead Town Hall, Newry Street, Holyhead, Anglesey, LL65 1HN
• Thursday 17th Dolgellau Leisure Centre, Ffordd Arran, Dolgellau, LL40 1LH
• Monday 21st The Interchange, 317-319 Abergele Road, Colwyn Bay, LL29 9YF
• Wednesday 23rd Flint Town Hall, Holywell Street, Flint, CH6 5NW
• Monday 28th Bangor FC, The Book People Stadium, Nantporth, Holyhead Road, Bangor, LL57 2HQ

All sessions will run from 1:00pm to 2:30pm and 5:30pm to 7:00pm

The Consultation documents and questionnaire will be made widely available across North Wales and will also be available from the website once the consultation has started. People will also be able to give their views at sessions and meetings that have been arranged as part of the Health Board’s current ‘Living Healthier, Staying Well’ public listening programme.

The website at www.wales.nhs.uk/NWMaternity will go live on 24th August, this will carry further details of how people can get information and submit their views.