The two Pembrokeshire Welsh Conservative Assembly Members Paul Davies AM and Angela Burns AM used a phone call with Hywel Dda University Health Board Chief Executive Steve Moore to raise their concerns over the three days of cancelled elective surgery operations throughout the Health Board Region.
The Health Board, which is in charge of running Hospitals in Haverfordwest, Carmarthen, Llanelli and Aberystwyth has been forced to cancel elective surgery in all their hospitals for each of the last three days, blaming “extraordinary pressures”.
Mrs Burns used the opportunity of questions to the First Minister on Tuesday and a Topical question to the Health Minister on Wednesday to call for action to be taken and measures to be put in place to minimise disruption, further delays to procedures and similar events taking place again in the future.
Following the call, Mr Davies said “ We were grateful for the opportunity to raise the issues surrounding the cancelled operations with Mr Moore. We received some details surrounding the events that led to the decision being taken and we took the opportunity to express our concern that matters had escalated to such an extent. The situation is clearly not acceptable and whilst we need to ensure that patient safety is not put at risk, serious questions need to be asked to how a similar situation can be prevented in the future. The people of Pembrokeshire deserve better.
Mrs Burns added: “It is extremely worrying we have reached this point yet again. The Health Board cite extraordinary pressures, but these pressures regularly occur at a similar point every year. The Health Board need to analyse the root causes of this event and the Welsh Government must provide them with the tools they need to ensure that better planning is in place to cover the eventualities that have arisen over the recent days. Patients in our constituencies, many of whom have already endured lengthy periods of time on waiting lists, had planned for their surgery but will now need to wait until pressures have been reduced. It is not good enough and change must occur immediately.”
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