News

‘Once in a lifetime’ reorganisation planned by Health Board

Published

8 years ago

January 19, 2018

THE LOCAL Health Board is embarking on a ‘once in a lifetime’ reorganisational plan which is looking at all potential options to ‘change the status quo and focus on improving health’ of locals.

This will involve, a press release has revealed, transferring more hospital services into the community where appropriate.

This is part of a strategy that the Health Board is looking into, to help solve an acute recruitment problem which is putting a great deal of pressure on the way that the Heath Board operates – and is leading to an untenable level of use of costly temporary staff to plug gaps and services.

In the summer of 2017, the Health Board embarked in an engagement with the public called ‘The Big Conversation’ which involved public workshops and drop-ins being held across the three counties of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.

The Health Board now says the it has independently analysed opinions of the general public and has been using that data to explore, challenge and test different scenarios.

It is yet to be seen what these changes will mean for end service users.

The Herald understands it is likely to mean hospital services being reduced or cut, and replaced with community alternatives.

The Health Board has said it will not make any changes, unless it can guarantee the safety of the people which it serves.

The Health Board has insisted that no preferred option for change has yet been determined, and nothing has been signed off or agreed at this stage.

Medical Director Dr Philip Kloer said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our health service and community to work together to design an NHS which is fit for our generation and beyond. It has been acknowledged for some time across the UK that healthcare services are challenged like never before and we need significant change. Indeed this has been recognised in the recently published ‘Parliamentary Review of Health & Social Care’ here in Wales.

“We need to develop more proactive, resilient and better resourced local community services to support and improve people’s health and wellbeing, and avoid deterioration where possible. This will involve closer working with our partners, particularly colleagues in social care. We are also looking at ways of providing the most modern clinical practice, using the latest digital, technological, and new scientific developments, in fit for purpose facilities to provide better patient outcomes and experience.

“A number of our services are fragile and dependent on significant numbers of temporary staff, which can lead to poorer quality care. For us specifically in Hywel Dda, the geography we cover is large, with many scattered communities that are getting older, needing more holistic health and social care treatment and support. Because of this, we need to better resource our community based care, which is where most of our patient contact is, and help people manage their health conditions. We also need to evolve traditional ways of working and provide a more proactive approach. This should give patients – young, older and frail and everyone in between – the services they need when the need it, so people do not have to wait too long.

“This will mean changing hospital-based care, as well as community care, and we appreciate the attachment local people and our own staff have for their local hospitals. They have been cared for in them, or work in them, and they also play an important role in our wider communities. The options may propose change to a local hospital; however this is about more than the buildings. This is about investing in our communities, attracting doctors, nurses and therapists by operating a modern healthcare system and keeping hospitals for those who really need hospital care.

“We will not put in place any change that isn’t safe for our patients and population. And we will look at all the impacts from ensuring services are safer with better patient outcomes, to considering the wider impact on people, including the most vulnerable.”

Dr Kloer added: “The potential options are evolving, with changes to them on almost a daily basis. Many will never even reach public consultation, for a variety of reasons including safety, accessibility and affordability, or will change significantly as they are tested against population needs and healthcare standards.

“We will be coming back to the public in the spring with fewer options that have been more rigorously tested and we will open and honest about what we think our preferred option is and why. We would not, and cannot, propose something that would not be safe for our population.

“We live in this community, use our NHS and work for our NHS and we want to work with our patients, staff, partners and public to ensure it is the best it can be.”

Meanwhile, Elin Jones, Ceredigion’s Assembly Member, has called for urgency in the implementation of electronic records for NHS patients in Wales, following the publication of a report by the Wales Audit Office, ‘Informatics systems in NHS Wales’.

The report outlines several of the opportunities that electronic patient records can bring to patients and health boards, as well as the current obstacles to achieving this goal.

Elin Jones, who has long-called for a paperless NHS has welcomed the report, saying: “This is an important step in the development of health services in Wales, which is long-overdue. It would make our NHS more sustainable and more flexible to every patient’s needs.

“I have heard of many instances where patients have turned up to appointments in Llanelli, Swansea or Cardiff, only to find that their medical records have not arrived. These are people who have, in some cases, had to wait a long time for a specialist appointment, and have had to travel long distances, sometimes leaving very early in the morning or have arranged overnight accommodation in order to get to a 9 am appointment.

“Being turned away because their paper record has not arrived is a failure in the current system, and would be addressed directly by electronic records.

“The technology is available, it’s just a case of putting the funding in place.

“With the proper investment into the Welsh NHS by the Welsh Government, electronic patient records can help the NHS to deliver better outcomes for patients and to make more efficient and effective use of scarce financial and human resources.”

Health

Resident doctors in Wales vote to accept new contract

Published

4 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

RESIDENT doctors across Wales have voted to accept a new contract, with 83% of those who took part in a referendum backing the agreement, according to BMA Cymru Wales.

The contract includes a four per cent additional investment in the resident doctor workforce and introduces a range of reforms aimed at improving training conditions, wellbeing and long-term workforce sustainability within NHS Wales. The BMA says the deal also supports progress towards pay restoration, which remains a central issue for doctors.

Key changes include new safeguards to limit the most fatiguing working patterns, measures intended to address medical unemployment and career progression concerns, and reforms to study budgets and study leave to improve access to training opportunities.

Negotiations between the BMA’s Welsh Resident Doctors Committee, NHS Wales Employers and the Welsh Government concluded earlier this year. Following a consultation period, a referendum of resident doctors and final-year medical students in Wales was held, resulting in a clear majority in favour of the proposals.

Welsh Resident Doctors Committee chair Dr Oba Babs Osibodu said the agreement marked a significant step forward for doctors working in Wales.

He said: “We’re proud to have negotiated this contract, which offers our colleagues and the future generation of doctors safer terms of service, fairer pay, and better prospects so that they can grow and develop their careers in Wales.

“This contract will help to retain the doctors already in training, and also attract more doctors to work in Wales, where they can offer their expertise and benefit patients.”

Dr Osibodu added that the BMA remains committed to achieving full pay restoration and acknowledged that challenges remain for some doctors.

“Whilst this contract sets the foundations for a brighter future for resident doctors in Wales, we recognise that there are still doctors who are struggling to develop their careers and secure permanent work,” he said. “We need to work with the Welsh Government and NHS employers to address training bottlenecks and underemployment.”

The Welsh Government has previously said it recognises the pressures facing resident doctors and the importance of improving recruitment and retention across NHS Wales, while also highlighting the need to balance pay agreements with wider NHS funding pressures and patient demand.

The new contract is expected to be phased in from August 2026. It will initially apply to doctors in foundation programmes, those in specialty training with unbanded rotas, and new starters, before being rolled out to all resident doctors across Wales.

Crime

Swansea man jailed for online child sex offence dies in prison

Published

4 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man who was jailed earlier this year for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child has died while in custody.

Gareth Davies, aged 59, of the Maritime Quarter, was serving an 18-month prison sentence after being convicted in May of sending sexually explicit messages to what he believed was a 14-year-old girl. The account was in fact a decoy used as part of an online safeguarding operation.

The court heard that Davies began communicating with the decoy between November and December 2024 and persistently pursued the individual, later attempting to arrange a face-to-face meeting. He was arrested after being confronted by the decoy operators.

Davies had pleaded not guilty but was convicted following a trial. At the time of sentencing, police described the messages as extremely concerning and said his imprisonment was necessary to protect children.

It has now been confirmed that Davies died at HMP Parc on Wednesday (Nov 27) while serving his sentence.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has launched an independent investigation into the death, which is standard procedure in all cases where someone dies in custody. No cause of death has been released at this stage.

A coroner will determine the circumstances in due course.

Farming

Welsh Conservatives warn climate plans could mean fewer livestock on Welsh farms

Published

4 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

THE WELSH CONSERVATIVES have challenged the Welsh Government over climate change policies they say could lead to reductions in livestock numbers across Wales, raising concerns about the future of Welsh farming.

The row follows the Welsh Government’s decision, alongside Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats, to support the UK Climate Change Committee’s Fourth Carbon Budget, which sets out the pathway towards Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Carbon Budget, produced by the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), states that meeting Net Zero targets will require a reduction in agricultural emissions, including changes to land use and, in some scenarios, a reduction in livestock numbers.

During questioning in the Senedd, the Welsh Conservatives pressed the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs on whether the Welsh Government supports reducing livestock numbers as part of its climate strategy.

Speaking after the exchange, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Samuel Kurtz MS, said the Welsh Government could not distance itself from the implications of the policy it had backed.

Mr Kurtz said: “By voting in favour of these climate change regulations, Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats have signed up to the UK Climate Change Committee’s call to cut livestock numbers in Wales, and they cannot dodge that reality.

“The Deputy First Minister’s smoke-and-mirrors answers only confirm what farmers already fear: that Labour, along with their budget bedfellows in Plaid and the Lib Dems, are prepared to sacrifice Welsh agriculture in pursuit of climate targets.”

He added that the issue came at a time of growing pressure on the farming sector, pointing to uncertainty over the proposed Sustainable Farming Scheme, the ongoing failure to eradicate bovine TB, nitrogen pollution regulations under the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs), and proposed changes to inheritance tax rules affecting family farms.

The Welsh Government has repeatedly said it does not have a target to forcibly reduce livestock numbers and has argued that future emissions reductions will come through a combination of improved farming practices, environmental land management, and changes in land use agreed with farmers.

Ministers have also said the Sustainable Farming Scheme, which is due to replace the Basic Payment Scheme, is intended to reward farmers for food production alongside environmental outcomes, rather than remove land from agriculture.

The UK Climate Change Committee, which advises governments across the UK, has stressed that its pathways are based on modelling rather than fixed quotas, and that devolved governments have flexibility in how targets are met.

However, farming unions and rural groups in Wales have warned that policies focused on emissions reduction risk undermining the viability of livestock farming, particularly in upland and marginal areas where alternatives to grazing are limited.

The debate highlights the growing tension between climate targets and food production in Wales, with livestock farming remaining a central part of the rural economy and Welsh cultural identity.

As discussions continue over the final shape of the Sustainable Farming Scheme and Wales’ long-term climate plans, pressure is mounting on the Welsh Government to reassure farmers that climate policy will not come at the expense of the sector’s survival.