Uncertainty surrounds A&E downgrade plans
A HEALTH board that is considering downgrading an accident and emergency unit which serves a large part of the south Wales Valleys has pulled back from making an early decision on the proposal.
But campaigners are unhappy that a meeting of Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTM) being held today will not be accessible to the public because of IT problems.
Health boards usually meet in public, but because of the coronavirus CTM’s board members are not meeting face-to-face. Instead they will communicate by means of a video conference from remote locations.
A report to the board says all clinical work on the proposal should cease because of the coronavirus, but that some non-clinical planning work should continue.
The campaign group which wants the A&E unit at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Llantrisant, to stay open as it is says it is unhappy that today’s video meeting will not be livestreamed, but the board says it is not geared up technically for that and that it would be wrong to divert IT staff from duties related to combating the coronavirus outbreak.
We put a series of questions to CTM.
Asked why it was necessary to continue with planning work on the proposal and how many non-clinical staff would continue to work on the project during the coronavirus crisis, a spokeswoman said: “This will vary as other demands allow, but only two or three people maximum and only for parts of their time.”
Asked whether the board was satisfied that the staff involved would not be better employed in some capacity related to the coronavirus, the spokeswoman said: “This is being kept under review and staff may be re-diverted at any time to support the coronavirus response.”
Acknowledging that clinicians would be asked for input to the plans while they were dealing with coronavirus, the spokeswoman said: “Some individual clinicians may be asked very specific questions to inform the work, but only with their agreement and at times when this is not diverting their attention from more pressing matters.”
Asked why it was considered so essential to continue some work on the project at this time, the spokeswoman said: “The staffing pressures and safety issues that led to the work on [A&E] services will only become more acute over the coming weeks. We need to be ready to progress work on the project ... once the impact of the pandemic has significantly reduced.”