Hospital pledge from watchdog (From Western Telegraph)

Hospital pledge from watchdog

PEMBROKESHIRE'S patient watchdog - the community health council (CHC) - has pledged to keep an even closer eye on services at Withybush Hospital.

It will begin a rigorous and intensive series of monitoring visits, particularly aimed at the A&E unit and Ward 4, the all-female unit.

The move follows major concerns raised by hospital staff, GPs and patients.

These prompted the CHC to call a 'behind closed doors' meeting with the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust board, Local Health Board (LHB) chief executive Bernadine Rees, and Assembly Member Christine Gwyther last week.

Afterwards, the CHC's chief officer, Ashley Warlow, said: "The trust accepted concerns and shared with us its plans to address the many privacy and dignity issues that exist, primarily in Ward 4.

"The trust also revealed its short-term contingency plans, which will alleviate the immediate bed capacity problems, and also its long-term strategy to eliminate the problem on a permanent basis.

"Importantly, the Trust said it was fully committed in its endeavours to retain accreditation status for gynaecology services.

"This has been of particular concern to many women. The next such accreditation exercise will occur in April.

"We have agreed that the chief executives of the trust, LHB and CHC will meet in the near future to develop an action plan which will encompass all the proposals. This action plan will be made public and the CHC will regularly monitor it."

Mr Warlow said that the meeting was productive, with positive outcomes. But there were still some reservations on the part of CHC members.

"However, the CHC does support the trust's long-term objectives for improvement, which will ultimately benefit the people of Pembrokeshire," he added.