Thousands sign to keep baby services at hospital
A PETITION has been signed by more than 10,000 people who object to the removal of some midwifery and children’s services at a major hospital in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
The move will see paediatric and obstetric services downgraded at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, at Ynysmaerdy, near Llantrisant, this summer.
Samuel Trask, a Llantrisant community councillor representing Beddau, who has been campaigning against the move, handed the petition in at the start of the latest Cwm Taf University Health Board meeting yesterday.
The petition has been signed by 10,644 people who oppose the move, which will mean severely ill or premature babies will not be delivered there, but instead the mothers will have to go to the Prince Charles Hospital, in Merthyr Tydfil, or the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff.
Speaking at the meeting of the health board, chief executive Allison Williams said a key requirement is for ongoing and escalating communication with the public.
She said: “It has been four years since the public consultation.
“We held a public meeting in Llantrisant a few weeks ago which was extremely well attended.
“There was an awful lot of anxiety about the implications of these changes.
“The key thing is how we are appropriately engaging to address concerns they understandably and quite rightly have for them and their families.”
She confirmed there were two more public meetings due to be held in the Rhondda Valley and in the Taff/Ely area, but not in Cynon or Merthyr Tydfil, which are served by Prince Charles Hospital anyway.
There will also be two more Facebook questionand-answer sessions held by the health board.
Ms Williams said the health board will meet the small number of families whose children have complex needs and have open access to the ward at the moment.
Referring to the public meeting, she said: “It is fair to say it was quite an emotional meeting.
“Members will know how very, very difficult the decision was to make.
“It was made on the basis of safety and the lack of junior and middle-grade doctors to sustain it.
“Despite a huge amount of effort both nationally and internationally, we haven’t been able to address the deficit.
“We continue to see big challenges across the UK.
“There is an awful lot of work to do in the context of understandable anxiety.
“We need to make sure that the views of the public and the staff are taken into account.”