HYWEL Dda Health Board moved to reassured people that Withybush Hospital’s future was safe but acknowledge there was still ‘much to do’ to improve the current situation.

At a board meeting today (Thursday) members discussed a report by interim medical director Dr Phil Kloer that highlighted “current significant challenges in delivering services at Withybush Hospital”.

Chief executive Steve Moore acknowledged there was “clear public concern” about the situation and clear sense of the future was required.

He said there was much going on behind the scenes and many areas of improvement but there was “still a huge amount to do to move the services forward here”.

Mr Moore added that the creation of a Withybush Development Group, made up of local clinicians, was just part of the work to push progress.

“It’s worth saying that this board is absolutely committed to the future of Withybush Hospital,” added Mr Moore, who paid tribute to the “fantastic cohort of staff working really hard every day”.

He also said Withybush had a great set of services and facilities.

The positivity was not entirely reflected in the report which focused on challenges, particularly in emergency and oncology services, such as high vacancy rates causing a reliance on locum, bank and agency staff.

This, the report states, has caused increased pressure on front line staff, potentially reduced the quality of patient experience, impacted negatively on the experience of medical trainees, compounded existing public perceptions of the hospital which then negatively impacts on recruitment and retention and created significant cost pressures.

Recruitment issues are not unique to Pembrokeshire said Dr Kloer but have been a long standing issue at Withybush Hospital.

The meeting later heard an update on the number of new staff recruited and plans to bring in more in the next few months.

There had also been discussion of contingency plans if the number of trainees were to be reduced because of Deanery recruitment issues, following the resolution of concerns trainees had raised about the quality of their training at the hospital.

The most feasible option is said to be reducing emergency service cover to 14 hours but Dr Kloer said: “This is not what we want to do; we are working really hard to fill those posts”.

There were improvements beginning to be made to oncology services despite a difficulty in recruiting a consultant.

Currently it would require some patients to travel to Prince Philip Hospital for specialist consultant appointments but diagnostic testing and chemotherapy would take place at Withybush.

Board members also watched a short video prepared by the communications team which featured members of staff speaking candidly about the hospital and their experiences.

• For the full report on today's meeting see next week’s Western Telegraph.