Morale is being hit (From Western Telegraph)

Morale is being hit

12:53pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in Letters

RE: Hywel Dda Health Board – The head of NHS Confederation, which represents health boards, has said, inter alia, the ‘it is fair and right people should have their say, but protests and petitions against the closure of particular units or hospitals do not take into account the bigger picture, which is that health services in Wales have to change’ – in other words protesters might just as well recycle their petitions, throw away their placards and go home.

I see this statement as a cynical attempt to deflate morale and sap the resolve of those who are fighting hard, with very good reason, to reverse some proposals of the Board. It is seen also as an insult to the intelligence of a well organised professionally led protest lobby.

Of course the need for change is recognised, it is the manner of change which is causing so much concern.

The big picture, the protesters see, depicts, for example, a distraught mother with her baby, possibly more ill than it need be, in hospital in Carmarthen whilst her stressed husband, necessarily absent from work, has to care for his other children knowing that he can visit his wife and baby only infrequently and with much difficulty.

Another ‘big picture’ might show a pensioner with a complicated hip fracture, languishing in hospital in Llanelli and worried to death about his housebound wife so far away.

We must keep on fighting for what we know is right against an organisation which is up to all manner of tricks to force through a policy which we, and probably they, know is wrong for the people of Pembrokeshire. If you care make sure you register your comments by October 29th, this can be achieved in a variety of ways the simplest of which is to ring 01437 771232.

JOHN BELL Roch