THE reduced hours at the Withybush paediatric unit will continue while efforts to recruit specialist staff continues, Hywel Dda University Health Board announced today (Thursday).

The reduced opening hours of the Paediatric Ambulatory Care Unit (PACU) at Withybush Hospital will remain as 10am to 6pm, seven days a week.

Those 'temporary' hours came into effect on December 5 2016 and reduced the service from 10am to 10pm, seven days a week in light of reduced availability of consultant paediatricians.

And the Health Board said it is currently examining 'a range of scenarios' in case the recruitment situation does not improve.

An external body will examine the scenarios and 'engage' with service users in the Autumn if the staffing situation has not allowed a return to the 12 hour PACU service.

That will inevitably cause major concern for Pembrokeshire residents that the service could be cut back even further.

Dr Philip Kloer, Medical Director and Director of Clinical Strategy at Hywel Dda UHB said: “Since November 2016, the Health Board has continued its efforts to attract and recruit suitably qualified staff to join the paediatric medical team, including the launch of a targeted paediatric recruitment strategy in February 2017 

“Regrettably to date, this has not generated recruitment of a sufficient number of consultants to support the re-establishment of the 12 hour, 7 days per week PACU service and the Board agreed to continue the current 10am – 6pm, 7 days per week service whilst recruitment attempts continue.

“The current service arrangements are closely monitored and the impact on children / families who need to access paediatric care at Glangwili Hospital remains in line with projections considered by the Board in November 2016.”

A Health Board release said a multi-disciplinary group of hospital and primary care based doctors, nurses and other staff representing those services who provide care to children have been assessing and reviewing alternative future staffing and service model scenarios to support a safe and sustainable paediatric ambulatory care service at the hospital, if the recruitment position does not improve.

It added: "The group, which is also supported by representatives from the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Hywel Dda Community Health Council, has made significant progress in identifying a range of possible scenarios whilst overseeing ongoing recruitment efforts.

"To support further progress with this work, the Health Board has recently commissioned external, independent clinical facilitation to work with staff and their respective clinical teams to further review these scenarios and assess the extent to which they could be delivered on a safe and sustainable basis.

"Once this work is complete, the Health Board plans to commence a period of engagement with service users during the autumn period if the recruitment position has not sufficiently improved to support re-establishment of a 12 hour, 7 days per week PACU service at the hospital."

The monitoring report considered by the Board at the meeting in Milford Haven is available online at http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/862/page/92495, item 11 on the agenda.