Work on preparing a full business case for a new Accident and Emergency department at Withybush Hospital will begin in the new year.

The outline case for the new unit has already been approved by the Welsh Assembly.

Last week the Local Health Board said £1 million has already been received for initial enablement works to begin before the full build.

Local AM Christine Gwyther welcomed the announcement.

But members of SWAT - Save Withybush Hospital Action Team - are still seeking assurance that the money will be there for the development to go ahead in 2007 and that the A&E unit, with its 15-bed assessment ward, will be part of a hospital which has retained and enhanced its present services.

Said Haverfordwest Town Councillor Debbie Bryson: "I attended a meeting at St Thomas Surgery last week and was greatly concerned at some of the phrases used.

"When the Local Health Board was asked about the new A&E we were told there would always be a 'front door open at Withybush and assessment and stabilisation will be available 24 hours a day'."

Added Cllr Bryson: "I commented this phrase implies that the patient would then be transferred? The response was that if you should break your arm you will be treated at Withybush and not transferred. I then asked what about a patient with a ruptured spleen? That question was ignored."

There is also huge concern over the impact of the closure of Withybush's HDU (high dependency unit) seven weeks ago.

Although there is a promise that the unit will be reopened in spring, two high trained specialist HDU nurses left the hospital for other jobs and the Pembrokeshire and Derwen Trust recently had to pay for agency nurses to cover the intensive care unit.

If there are not enough ICU and HDU beds at Withybush, then some patients who might otherwise have been treated at Withybush would have to be transferred, warned SWAT.