THE local health board is reminding residents that its temporary changes to alleviate problems caused by a lack of junior doctors come into force this week.

Hywel Dda University Health Board announced last month that the ‘catchment area’ for Withybush Hospital would be changed so that many residents in the east of the county, including Narberth and Tenby, and in the Cardigan area would travel to Glangwili for treatment instead.

A health board spokesman said: “This will allow patient access to medical and unscheduled care services to be maintained 24/7, whilst temporarily there are fewer than usual junior medical doctors in place.”

It has resulted in the postponement of some planned surgical procedures while temporary wards at Glangwili and Prince Philip are prepared, with an estimate completion time of eight weeks according to the health board.

Medical Director Dr Philip Kloer said: “We will have to initially postpone some planned surgical procedures, but we are working hard to minimise the impact of this, for example ring fencing orthopaedics and cancer surgery and exploring options for doing more day case surgery and possibly weekend working.”

He added: “Whilst we have managed to recruit service doctors into the posts ourselves, these are mainly international doctors and it will take some months before all the Visa paperwork and processes are in place and doctors are working on the ground in the hospital. In the interim, we are putting in place a temporary solution to ensure that the number of medical beds at Withybush Hospital reflect the number of doctors available, whilst also keeping the medical intake and doors to the Emergency and Urgent Care Centre open 24/7.”

Chief Executive Steve Moore said: “The health board’s priority has continued to be to maintain access to medical and unscheduled care services for our population, whilst we have a temporary gap in the number of junior doctors available. We acknowledge that this situation affects our entire area and that each of our much loved and respected hospitals has a role to play – working together for the benefit of our population.

“The solutions we are putting in place this week have been clinically led and involved a huge range of staff from across the health board area. A huge amount of work has gone into this and the board is extremely thankful and proud of all staff who have been involved from clinicians, nurses, managers and other personnel – all of whom have shown an absolute dedication to patient care. We are also grateful to the ongoing support from partners, including local GPs and the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire local authorities and private and third sector colleagues.”