THE Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) is urging people to let them know about their experiences of the service for youngsters provided by Hywel Dda Health Board.

Changes were made to the service last year with overnight paediatric care removed from Withybush Hospital and the loss of its special care baby unit and consultant maternity cover.

The RCPCH wants to hear people’s experiences either directly or via the Community Health Council (CHC) as it prepares for its main part of its review of the changes.

You can have your say at www.rcpch.ac.uk/invitedreviews under the Hywel Dda evaluation of maternity, neonatal and paediatric services section before August 17.

Here the RCPCH states: “We have been invited by Hywel Dda University Health Board to undertake an independent evaluation of the changes in women's and children’s healthcare services in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. The evaluation follows a request by the Welsh Government in January 2014 for a formal evaluation after 12 months of the service change.”

You can also register for a “webinar” to be held at 1.45pm on July 14 where members of the review team will talk about how the review will be organised and answer questions about process and coverage of the evaluation work.

The review team attended a recent Let’s Talk Health event in the area and will visit again at the end of the month.

Preseli Pembrokeshire AM Paul Davies is also encouraging people in Pembrokeshire to have their say.

Mr Davies said: "This is a golden opportunity for people in Pembrokeshire to stand up and be heard. The controversial decisions to close the Special Care Baby Unit and downgrade paediatric services at Withybush Hospital have had a detrimental effect on service provision and this is a chance to make sure the health board fully understands that. My postbag is filled with correspondence from families across the County who have been forced to travel to Glangwili and their experiences certainly haven’t been good ones. Now it’s time to make that known.”

He added: “We’ve seen how pressure in North Wales has led to Betsi Cadwaladr health board reversing its decision to downgrade maternity services at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in favour of a consultation, and we must keep up momentum here in west Wales. We’ve seen petitions and protests both at the Senedd and at Hywel Dda health board’s headquarters and we need to keep up that pressure. I urge everyone to get involved and complete the survey available on www.rcpch.ac.uk/invitedreviews.”