Is north losing out on health services? (From Western Telegraph)

Is north losing out on health services?

CONCERNS have been raised about a possible north/south divide in the county's health services.

As the Local Health Board (LHB) signed up in principle to ambitious plans to revolutionise GP facilities serving 13,000 Pembroke Dock residents, County Councillor David Wildman, warned that the north of the county should not miss out on its share of funding.

"My concern is that there is a pot of money at the National Assembly and the south is getting a fair crack of the whip. But if we are giving more to the south of the county, will there be anything else left for others?" asked the cabinet member for the elderly and infirm.

"Although I welcome the new surgery and hope it goes ahead, it shouldn't be at the expense of the north."

LHB chief executive, Bernadine Rees, has assured that the north is still a priority and the board was simply 'ready to roll' on what it had inherited in the south.

The plans, given LHB approval last week, will create a new general practice in Argyle Street.

Amalgamating Laws Street and Dimond Street surgeries, it adds to multi-million pound developments already planned for South Pembrokeshire Hospital and Merlins House.

The two facilities have been described as 'cramped' and are not flexible enough to meet the demands of a new vision for primary care and the General Medical Services contract.

"We've extended into the attic space and built out into the back, but now there is absolutely no room to go in, out, up or down," conceded Laws Street doctor, Frank Tobin. "Something has got to give and we feel the patients deserve better."

The privately financed practice, which has full planning permission, will be three times the size of both surgeries combined, and will house nine doctors, a compliment of skilled medical staff, a pharmacist and optometrist.