Wales NHS News

Responding to the news that Labour politicians including one Welsh Government minister have set up a campaign to protect accident and emergency services at Royal Glamorgan hospital in Llantrisant, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said:

The campaign to ensure safe NHS services as close to people’s homes as possible should be broad-based. A proper community campaign which can unite all of us who have concerns about the loss of services from the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and further centralisation would be the best way ahead.

A Labour minister, with a direct voice in the government that is making these changes is in a good position to halt these proposals now. If the plans are not halted, then I would imagine that big questions as to whether this is political posturing are bound to be asked. Plaid Cymru will work with anyone who is interested in fighting to save local services at hospitals like the Royal Glamorgan. We very much hope that the fight will be a successful one – failure is not an option when lives could be put at risk

• Health
• Labour
• Plaid Cymru

Labour has spectacularly failed our NHS over the past decade and this whole reorganisation process is down to their incompetence.

If the South Wales plans follow the same pattern as what we’ve seen in North and Mid Wales, I have real concerns that patients will not be able to be treated in the right place, at the right time, staffed with the appropriate levels of skills.

• Health
• Kirsty Williams
• Royal Glamorgan Hospital

Plaid Cymru's leader Leanne Wood's response to proposals for the future of hospital services in South Wales:

Today’s news is an admission of the Welsh Government’s failure to deliver these services. Labour has been in charge of health in Wales for the last 14 years; ever since the advent of devolution.

**The Party of Wales has spent a decade warning about these service reductions and we have proposed numerous positive alternative solutions. We must make Wales an attractive place for doctors to live and work.

And commenting specifically on proposals affecting the Royal Glamorgan hospital in Llantrisant, she said:

The people of Rhondda Cynon Taf will be very concerned to discover that critical services could be taken from the Royal Glamorgan hospital in Llantrisant, including from its A&E department, which is the preferred option of hospital chiefs.

RCT is an area where many of the residents have chronic health problems, the road network is poor and the local ambulance service has the worst performance in Wales for responding to life-threatening emergency calls.

• Health
• Royal Glamorgan Hospital
• NHS

In response to the proposals for hospitals in South Wales which have just been announced, Shadow Health Minister Darren Millar says:

Hacking back the range of emergency services provided at some Welsh hospitals is not going to solve the on-going crisis in demand. Instead, these plans will heap further pressure on our over-stretched and underperforming ambulance service, and force patients to travel further for live-saving care.

It’s just weeks since the College of Emergency Medicine warned A and E departments are at the ‘point of meltdown’ and now is not the time to be slashing the life-saving services their hard-working staff provide.

While sensible service modernisation should be welcomed, any plans to downgrade emergency departments in south Wales should be abandoned.

• Health
• Royal Glamorgan Hospital
• NHS

A shake-up of hospital services is due to be announced today for South Wales and Powys.

It's expected several A&E departments will be affected as part of plans to modernise NHS services around Wales.

Read more: Health reorganisation plans for South Wales expected

• Health
• South Wales
• Powys

Plans setting out how terminally-ill people in Wales will be supported and cared for at the end of their life were launched by the Health Minister today.

The "Delivering End of Life Care" plan sets out to make care consistently good across the country.

• Health
• NHS

Baroness Ilora Finlay, who will also speak at today's launch, says the way people are cared for at the end of life lives on in the memories of the bereaved.

Children who are losing a parent or grandparent will be deeply affected by all they see, experience and feel. Health care professionals need to listen to the patient and those who know the patient best, balancing at times different priorities.

In this plan we aim to ensure that people's wishes are known, that those delivering care know what to do and where to call for help and that attention to detail happens at every level.

• Health
• NHS

The Health Minister will launch the plan at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, and talk to staff at the hospital's specialist palliative care unit.

How well we care for our dying reflects how we care as a society. Maintaining the dignity of an individual in their last days of life is vital. It can be done, by having open and honest conversations about the end of life and providing support to people and their families to plan for the end of life.

Inequalities at the end of life are as unacceptable as inequalities in life. Good quality end of life care must be available wherever and whenever an individual dies, taking into account their wishes.

• Health
• NHS