Under threat: Withybush Hospital cancer surgery (Pic: Stock image)

THE SLOW salami-slicing of services at Withybush that has taken place over the last few years has recently accelerated, following the closure of the Special Care Baby Unit, the cessation of consultant-led obstetrics and the end of inpatient paediatric care at the site. 

Now, The Herald understands that another core service is to be removed from the Haverfordwest site. In July we exclusively reported the views of Professor John Wagstaff, who claimed the current cancer care provision within the local Health Board area was unsustainable. In a candid email to local campaigner Lyn Neville, Professor Wagstaff said: “It is my view that Hywel Dda should employ sufficient oncologists to allow patients with common cancers to be treated at one hospital in the Health Board.

Patients with rarer cancers will need to travel to Swansea to a consultant who is sub specialised in the rarer cancer types.” At the time, the Health Board avoided our question about the future of cancer care at Withybush both by referring us to its review of cancer care services in the Health Board area, due to report at the end of this year. It also referred us to its commitment to providing a Chemotherapy Day Unit at Withybush Hospital. Despite the fact that review is purportedly still under way and is yet to report, The Herald has seen an internal document which makes no referral to chemotherapy services at Withybush, and instead refers to the provision of ‘The Pembrokeshire Oncology Lounge’ which ‘will enable the delivery of a safe, effective and sustainable NONSURGICAL oncology service for Pembrokeshire patients’ (emphasis added).

The Herald understands that such surgical services will be provided at one site within the local Health Board and that site will not be in Haverfordwest, or otherwise patients face heading to Swansea – possibly to Morriston Hospital. The Board appears to have accepted the recommendations of a twenty year old report on commissioning cancer services that recommended the provision of a hub and spoke model of service delivery for cancer, with smaller local centres feeding towards a single specialist hub. While momentum towards the provision of new cancer facilities at Withybush appears to have increased since the formation of the new Oncology Services Committee, there remain concerns that the Health Board’s commitment to Withybush’s future is highly conditional.

Analysis commissioned by the Rare Cancers Foundation (RCF) suggests that the Welsh Government spends £1000 less per patient than England on cancer treatment. The Welsh Government – including First Minister Carwyn Jones – have repeatedly asserted that the opposite is true. Commenting on the findings, RCF Chief Executive Andrew Wilson said: “Contrary to ministerial assurances, the truth is that access to cancer treatment is poor in Wales, and is getting worse. Hundreds of patients have been denied funding for medicines that they would have received if they lived in England. Ministers in Wales cannot spin their way out of the cancer crisis they are presiding over. Urgent action is required before more patients are let down. Ministers need to find a way to make treatments available to patients in Wales.”