Mark Drakeford, AM: ‘Best advice’ says no way back for SCBU

WHILE Deputy Minister Vaughan Gething visited Withybush Hospital on Monday (Feb 1), his boss, Welsh Health Minister Professor Mark Drakeford was in Llanelli being interviewed by Herald reporter Alan Evans.

Attacking Conservative election pledges, Professor Drakeford told The Herald: “The Tories say they want to spend more on the health service. People need to look at their record, rather than what they say. The Welsh Government has 10% less money to spend every single year and 30% less on capital funding to make sure we have the buildings and equipment we need for the future.

“Right across England where the Tories are in charge trusts are being instructed to sack nurses because their budget is so badly overspent.”

Professor Drakeford concluded: “The Tories are in public life to cut and cut again.”

We asked about the 8,500 signature petition to reverse the centralisation of services in Glangwili Hospital and whether it would sway the decision to remove maternity and SCBU services from Withybush Hospital.

The Minister’s response was unequivocal and un-encouraging: “That decision came to me as a recommendation from the Board. The decision was independently reviewed last year. It will not be reversed, because the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – in other words, the clinical specialists who we have to rely on for advice – tell us that the way things are done now is the best way for mothers and babies.

“I will not make a decision that is not good for patients. All the best advice tells us that mothers and babies in that part of Wales have a better service now as a result of the change.”

Praising the front line staff, Mark Drakeford told us: “We have a fantastic group of midwives working out of Withybush who can do more in the future. You can’t go backwards to a position where people in that part of Wales will get a service that nobody else in Wales would be prepared to put up with.

“We are looking at making sure that we have a strong midwife service who in the future will take 40% of all births that happen in that area. Where a mother needs a specialist service above and beyond what a midwife unit can provide that mother needs to know that she will be looked after somewhere where all the expertise she needs is available every single day right around the clock. You can’t do that if you spread your resources thinly everywhere.”

The Minister concluded by telling our reporter: “You do have to concentrate in a place to guarantee that the service that is provided is the service that is needed and it will be at Glangwili and we will invest more money again in the next financial year to improve the physical fabric of that service. Mothers in this part of Wales will be better off as a result.”