‘Opinions must be heard on hospital’
THE proposed closure of Maesteg Day Hospital is an “emotionally charged” issue and people will need to have their say, a patient watchdog leader has said.
Clare Jenkins said she wanted to ensure the community had plenty of opportunities to give feedback.
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) Health Board has put forward the closure proposal on staff shortage grounds and said that high quality replacement services would be provided elsewhere.
The health board insists that no changes are proposed for the rest of Maesteg Community Hospital.
Ms Jenkins, chief officer of ABM Community Health Council (CHC), said: “Maesteg Hospital is very precious to the local community, so any change there would be emotionally charged. The CHC is very keen for everyone to have their voices heard.”
ABMU is now undertaking an eightweek engagement with the community, including drop-in events, which runs until December 21.
It said the day hospital was operating at 50% capacity when it was temporarily closed last November due to staffing issues.
The plan was to reopen in April this year – and wi-fi was installed – but key staff retired or left the service, leaving the facility with no medical cover.
Now the idea is to provide the day hospital’s services at the medical day unit at the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend.
The medical day unit has consultant and multi-disciplinary assessments carried out five days a week and patients, said ABMU, wait a maximum of two weeks to be assessed or less if their needs are more urgent.
“Consideration has been given to reopening Maesteg Day Hospital, but medical input would be required and this would need to come from existing consultants at Princess of Wales Hospital, which would reduce the service for the wider population of Bridgend,” said the health board.
It added that new services were up and running at Maesteg Community Hospital, including a catheter clinic and dementia support team. Other services could be created in due course – and people’s views would be welcome. Staff at the day hospital have been temporarily redeployed.
ABMU said the proposed closure would save £110,000 per year and that the permanent redeployment of staff would reduce the need for more expensive agency workers.
Drop-in events take place on November 22 at Maesteg Community Centre and December 4 at Maesteg Leisure Centre, from 9am to 5pm.